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LIBRARY 

OF     THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


A   IIISTURV  <.)F   THE   I'RKCIOUS   MEIALS. 


i' 


A    X.ro^^,  '^'^    ^«^^^^^E    AUTHOR  • 

A  HISTORY  OF  MONEY  IV  .v. 

-OM  .HK  E.,,,,3X  PK.O.:  .:i?/^    ^^-^^^S. 

■PP-4/5:  cloth  and  gold,  $3. 

States  ok  the  WoriT  "''  ^'^^^^^^^ 

Statutes.  Customs,  Treaties'^Ar  "°"  ""^"^      ' 

-^othe.  sou.es  o^fn^atr^'^'^"^^^' 
'^°'PP-450;    cJoth   and   gold,    S3. 


^-^^hk:ca.  CcsT'T^Txor""-"'"''  °^  ^"- 
S^^o.  pp.  200;  cloth,  Sr.  50" 

'  i^P-  no,  illustratf-rl.  ^i_., 


Justrated;  cloth    -- 

.  Ljotn,  73  cents. 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  MONEy. 
PRINCTPT  re  T.^        °^  "^"E 

'  PP-  226:  cloth.  Si. 


CAMBRIDGE  PRess.  NEW  V 


ORK. 


A    HISTORY   OF 


THE  PRFXIOUS  METALS 


FKOM   THE  EARLIKST   T/MES   TO    THE  J'A'ESEXT 


BY 


ALEX.  DEL  iMAR,  M.  E. 

FukMKRI.Y    DiKKt  TOR    <)K    THE    U.   S.    BlREAl'   OK    StATISTK  S,     MlNINtJ    COM- 
MISSIONKR    TO    THE    U.  S.    MONETARY    COMMISSION  ;     AUTHOR     oK 

"A  History  ok  Monetary  Systems,"  "Ancient  Britain," 
"The  Middle  Ages  Revisited,"  etc.,  etc. 


SECOXD   EDUTOX—KE  I  'ESED 


\     UNIV 


NEW  VOKK 

r  U  B  1.  I  S  H  K  n     BY    THE 

CAMBRIDGE  ENCYCLOPEDIA  COM  IAN  V 

1902 

{^All  rights  reserved) 


COPYRIGHT 

BY   ALEX.  DEL  MAR 

I90I 


GENERAL 


HISTORY     OF    T  H  K     I'RKCIOUS     >rKTAT.S 


LIST  OF  CHAP'l'KRS. 


Pl'BI.ISlIF.RS'    AnVKKTISKMKM.  .... 

Prkf.acf., 

HiBLlDC.R.M'HY, . 

I. — lNni.\ 

II. — C.MCASIA,   COI.CHIS   .\M>   I'kMIS, 

III.— Persia 

IV.— Ec.Yl'T 

"V. — CiRF.ECE 

VI.— Italy 

VII. — Si'AIN  AMI  GAri 

VIII. — Pi.r.NUER  OF  Europe  hy  the  Ivomans, 

IX. — Britain 

X. — Europe  Diking  THE  Middle  Ales.  . 

The  Amalgamation  Process,    . 
XI. — The  Plunder  of  America, 

XII. — IIisi'aSola, 

XIII. — El  Dorado, 

XIV.— Dakien 

XV. — Panama, 

XVI.— Mexico 

Production  of  Gold  and  Sii\kk  in  Mk 
XVII. — Vucatan  and  Honduras,  . 

XV  11  I.  —  (iUA'IEMALA.  ... 

XIX.— Peru 

XX. — Chile, 

XXI. — I. A   Plata  or  Buenos  Aykes,    . 

XXII.— BkAzii 

XXIII. — North  /Vmerk  a,  .... 

XXIV. — The  Plunder  of  .Xfkk  a,    . 
The  Congo  Free  .State,     . 

XXV. -Japan 

XX\I. — IM.UNDEK  OF  Asia,         .... 
Pi.u.nder  of  India,      .... 

Plunder  of  China 

XXVII. — The  Spanish-.-Xmerican  Revolution, 
XXVIII. — The  .Appalachian  Mines, 

XXIX. — Russia  and  Siberia 

Gold  Stealinc; 

XXX. — The  United  States  of  .Xmerica,    . 
Chronology  of  Gold  in  California, 

XXXI. — .Australasia 

Chronology  of  Gold  in  Australasia, 

XXXII. — British  Columbia 

XXXIII. — The  Mysore  and  Transvaal  .Mines, 
XX.XIV. — .\laska  and  the  Klondike,    .       ^. 
XXXV. — Production,  Consumption  and  .Stocks 

Conclusion, 

Index,      .  

Appendix  A. —  The  Halcyon  A(;es  of  Greece. 


OF  Meta 


////. 


23 

32 

44 

53 

6l 

84 
107 
119.^ 
134 
135 
140  - 

14'} 
if)i 
i()S 
171 
1S2 

183 
i8g 
192 
209 
217 
238 
259 
272 
300 
302 
315 
338 
348 
359 
36S 
372 
395 
397 
407 
416 
423 
425 
429 

435 
446 

459 
I 


1 07521 


VI  PUBLISHERS     ADVERTISEMENT. 

the  precious  metals  produced  since  the  Discovery  of  America,  fully 
one-half  has  been  wrung  from  the  blood  and  tears  of  conquered  and 
enslaved  races.  The  value  at  which  this  crime-stained  metal  has  en- 
tered the  exchanges  of  the  world  keeps  down  the  value  of  the  por- 
tion produced  by  free  labour;  so  that  as  yet,  the  latter  is  sold  to  the 
mints  at  less  than  its  average  cost.  In  other  words,  thus  far,  and 
perhaps  for  generations  yet  to  come,  the  precious  metals  gained  by 
fK§e-labour,  cost  in  the  long  run  more  to  produce  than  they  are  worth ; 
a,q9nclusion  long  familiar  to  practical  mining  men,  but  sounding 
st,rangely  to  those  who  ignore  the  hazards,  expense,  and  losses  of 
gpl4  and  silver  mining. 

ns^mong  the  graphic  portions  are  the  details  of  Albuquerque's  sack 
OiC^vMuscat;  the  story  of  the  Paraguayan  Missions;  the  tragedy  of 
I^i^ira,  as  told  by  Humboldt;  the  Coolgardie  Butchery;  the  silver 
sj<dj6walks  of  San  Jose;  the  auction  sales  of  golden  graves  in  Chiriqui 
ap^of  golden  loot  in  Pekin;  the  conquest  of  Siberia  by  Yermak,  and 
tjlfte  storming  of  Seringapatam  by  the  British. 

The  Cost  of  Production  theory,  which  has  been  so  widely  entertained 
sy:>5:;e  the  publication  of  Adam  Smith's  celebrated  treatise,  is  .shown 
l^y  pur  author  to  have  no  footing  in  respect  of  the  precious  metals. 
WJ^pSrC  production  has  been  largely  due  to  conquest  and  slavery. 
*'.)[,6  there  a  price  of  blood,"  he  asks;  "  Is  there  a  price  of  anguish,  of 
I'iif,  of  death,  of  the  extinction  of  races  and  of  their  inheritance  of 
^:;^gerience,  invention,  law,  religion,  and  the  moral  code  "  ?  Another 
tihepry  drawn  from  the  same  prolific  source  of  economical  error :  That 
tj^e,volume  of  money  obeys  the  scale  of  prices  and  the  demands  of 
qommerce,  rather  than  that  the  latter  obey  the  former,  also  engages 
OjttTija^uthor's  attention. 

jii^The  scope  of  the  volume  is  enormous;  the  details  full  of  interest, 
.^illoman  silver  ingot  found  within  the  Tower  of  London,  in  1777, 
ii^aprpved  by  its  weight  to  be  a  talent,  the  origin  of  the  thaler  or 
dftl^ar,  and  therefore  the  oldest  dollar  now  extant.  The  cession  to 
1^^j;!British  of  the  three  provinces  of  Bengal,  with  a  population  of  25 
^iUj-ons,  and  a  net  revenue  of  20  million  dollars,  was  made  in  1765, 
f^Qpa,  a  throne  which  consisted  of  a  dining-table  and  arm-chair  in 
L,Qr4  Clive's  tent.  The  plunder  of  Japan  in  the  17th,  of  India  in 
the  i8th,  and  of  China  in  the  19th  century,  events  intimately  con- 
nfjCted  with  the  history  of  the  precious  metals,  are  replete  with  gra- 
j^hiC)  incidents  which  hold  the  attention  while  they  profoundly  in- 
Sjjj4Pt  the  reader. 


Vll 


H  I  S 1^  O  R  V    OF    THE     PRECIOUS    METALS 


rKKFACE. 


The  favourable  reception  accorded  to  the  author's  previous  work 
on  the  Precious  Metals,  the  entire  edition  having  long  since  been  dis- 
posed of,  has  induced  him  to  resume  the  subject,  although  upon  a 
somewhat  different  plan.  In  some  portions  of  the  former  work  the 
search  for  the  precious  metals  was  treated  by  countries,  whilst  in 
others  it  was  treated  with  reference  to  the  physical  devastation  which 
it  had  entailed,  as  well  as  the  gambling,  insanity  and  crime  which  had 
everywhere  marked  its  course.  In  the  present  work  these  subjects  are 
omitted  from  view  and  the  historical  method  is  followed  throughout. 

As  since  the  preparation  of  the  first  edition  the  author  has,  in  his 
capacity  of  Engineer,  visited  most  of  the  localities  described,  he  feels 
increased  confidence  in  the  accuracy  of  his  descriptions.  The  dangers 
with  which  his  authorities  invested  some  of  the  gold  regions  in  dis- 
tant countries  disa]>peared  upon  closer  acquaintance  with  them;  while 
the  method  of  working  the  mines,  described  by  others,  proved  to  be 
faulty  or  inaccurate. 

Although,  as  will  be  seen  when  this  portion  of  the  subject  comes 
to  be  dealt  with,  money  is  not  the  principal  use  to  which  the  precious 
metals  are  devoted,  it  is  by  far  the  most  important  one.  It  is  a  pecu- 
liarity of  money  that  it  cannot  with  propriety  be  treated  in  its  func- 
tional capacity  apart  from  other  money,  because,  unlike  physical 
measures, its  function  is  affected  by  numbers.  To  increase  or  diminish 
the  number  of  yardsticks  or  pound  weights  would  have  no  effect  upon 
the  measurement  of  length  or  weight;  whilst  to  increase  or  diminish 
the  number  of  coins  or  bank  notes  would  have  a  very  decided  in- 
fluence upon  the  measurement  of  value.  This  is  a  principle  which 
has  not  been  left  to  modern  discovery,  for  it  will  be  discerneil  in  the 


Vm  PREFACE. 

most  ancient  works  which  have  been  spared  to  us  by  time  and  pro- 
scription. In  its  relation  to  value,  money  therefore  means  all  the 
money  of  a  given  epoch,  or  else  all  the  money  within  a  given  juris- 
diction. 

To  admit  that  it  is  the  quantity  of  the  precious  metals  coined  and 
in  circulation  which  influences  their  value  and  not  what  it  may  have 
cost  to  produce  them,  is  to  admit  that  value  is  a  relation  and  not  an 
attribute  of  commodities;  it  is  to  admit  that  money  is  a  measure  or 
measurer  of  value;  that  like  other  measures  it  is  a  creation  of  Law; 
and  that  to  work  equitably  it  should,  like  other  measures,  be  defined 
and  limited  by  law  with  precision. 

Such  admissions  will  never  wittingly  be  made  by  those  who  profit 
by  the  existing  lax  laws  of  money  or  by  the  abuses  which  have  grown 
up  under  them.  Yet  they  are  being  continually  made  unwittingly. 
When  California  threatened  to  greatly  increase  the  quantity  of  gold 
money,  Holland  and  Belgium  demonetised  gold;  France  was  on  the 
point  of  following  suit;  while  England  gravely  listened  to  Maclaren 
and  Cobden,  who  advised  a  recourse  to  silver  money  and  barter. 
When  the  Comstock  Lode  of  Nevada  threatened  to  greatly  increase 
the  quantity  of  silver  money,  England,  by  her  Mint  Act  of  April  4, 
1870,  deprived  her  Queen  of  the  power  to  remonetise  silver;  Ger- 
many and  France  followed  her  lead,  and  in  the  course  of  a  compara- 
tively few  years  the  stampede  to  gold  was  completed. 

In  neither  of  these  great  movements  was  the  least  consideration 
accorded  to  the  interests  of  mankind,  of  the  people  at  large,  of  the 
masses,  to  which  both  you  and  I,  dear  reader,  or  else  the  majority  of 
our  decendants  must  necessarily  belong.  Their  object  was  primarily 
to  arrest  a  threatened  Rise  of  Prices  having  a  Governmental  basis 
(gold  or  silver  coins)  long  enough  to  convert  it  into  a  Rise  of  Prices 
having  an  Individual  basis  (private  bank  notes). 

Similar  admissions  concerning  the  dependance  of  value  upon  Quan- 
tity (^.^.  the  Numbersof  coins), are  tacitly  made  whenever  the  expected 
course  of  prices  is  viewed  through  the  movements  of  money,  or  of  the 
precious  metals.  The  apprehensions  excited  by  the  exportation  of 
these  metals  would  have  no  basis  at  all  were  their  value  and  its  in- 
fluence upon  trade  and  speculation  due  to  the  cost  of  their  produc- 
tion. That  such  apprehensions  are  valid  is  an  unconscious  admission 
that  value  is  due  to  Quantity;  and  no  amount  of  sophistry  can  per- 
manently remove  this  conviction  from  the  intelligent  mind. 

Yet  its  place  is  not  yet  assured.  Three  thousand  years  of  conten- 
tion on  this  subject — a  contention  which  dates  backward  to  the  very 


PREFACE. 


origin  of  metallic  money — evince  at  once  the  tremendous  results  that 
hang  upon  its  decision,  and  the  facility  with  which  a  simple  truth  has 
been  made  to  bafHe  the  popular  comprehension. 

So  long  as  this  state  of  affairs  continues,  so  long  as  Individuals  in 
place  of  Government  retain  control  of  the  Monetary  Measure,  there 
can  be  no  real  Religion,  there  can  be  no  real  Liberty,  there  can  be  no 
real  National  Life.  The  bases  of  Religion  are  Love  and  Fraternity. 
There  can  be  no  Fraternity  whilst  an  Unjust  Measure  is  permitted  to 
introduce  discontent  and  strife  into  all  the  transactions  of  social  life. 
The  basis  of  Liberty  is  Justice.  There  can  be  no  Justice  whilst  an 
Unjust  Measure  continues  to  nullify  the  lessons  of  wisdom  and  ex- 
perience. The  basis  of  National  Life  is  Political  Equality.  There 
can  be  no  Equality  so  long  as  an  Unjust  Measure  continues  to  rob 
the  many  for  the  benefit  of  the  few.  The  control  of  Weights  and 
Measures,  including  Money  and  the  materials  of  which  its  symbols  are 
made,  is  a  prerogative  and  a  necessary  prerogative  of  National  Life. 
It  has  been  so  held  by  all  the  Courts  of  Judicature,  by  all  the  ex- 
ponents of  Law,  from  Plato  to  Paulus,  from  Paulus  to  Grimaudet, 
from  Grimaudet  to  the  Mixt  Money  case,  and  from  the  latter  to  the 
decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

The  Silver  Question  is  settled:  it  is  to  be  hoped,  forever;  but  the 
Gold  Question  remains;  and  in  our  rapid  and  strenuous  life  the  Gold 
Question  involves  considerations  which  not  only  seriously  affect  the 
future  of  this  nation,  but  of  mankind  at  large. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  time  seems  to  be  approaching  when 
the  Money  Question  will  have  to  be  debated  upon  much  higiiergrounds 
than  any  which  have  hitherto  been  advanced  in  the  contention.  It 
will  have  to  be  argued  not  by  appeals  to  ignorance  and  passion,  but 
by  appeals  to  Religion  and  Patriotism;  to  Fraternity  and  to  Equitv. 

To  approach  so  profound  a  subject  without  the  advantages  of  the 
world's  knowledge  and  experience  which  are  embodied  in  a  History 
of  the  Precious  Metals,  would  be  the  height  of  temerity:  a  consider- 
ation which  the  author  ventures  to  believe  is  a  sufficient  apology  for 
the  publication  of  the  present  work. 


XI 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

The  following  List  of  Books  is  to  he  read  in  connection  with  the  lists 
published  in  the  author's  previous  works.  The  numbers  at  the  foot  of 
each  title  are  the  press  marks  of  the  British  Museum  Library.  When 
several  editions  or  translations  of  the  same  rcork  are  given.,  the  object  is 
to  help  the  student  to  find  authority  in  distant  libraries  for  the  statements 
in  the  text. 


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Allen  and  Tkxeira.  Monnaies  d'Or,  Sueve-Lusitaniennes,  Extrait  de  la  Revue 
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Allen  (Grant).     Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God. 

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Indian  Government.  Note  on  the  Report  of  Mr.  Brough  Smyth,  on  the  Gold 
Mines  of  the  Wynaad.     London,  1880,  fol. 

Italiani.     Scrittori  Classic!.      Florence,  1751,  25  vols,  Svo.  2020.  a. 

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Jackson  (James  Grey).     An  account  of  the  Empire  of  Morocco  and  the  districts  of 

the  Suse  and  f  ifilet.      London,  3rd  edition,  1S14. 
Jacob  (William).      An   Historical  Inquiry  into  the   Production  and  Consumption  of 

the  Precious  Metals.      Philadelphia,  Carey  and  Lea,  1832,  Svo. 
Jacolliot  (Louis).     Voyages  aux  Indes.     .     .     .     Le  pays  aux  perles.     Paris,  Svo. 
Jameray  Duval  (Valentin).    Numismata  Cimelii  Caesarii   Regii   Austriaci,  Vindo- 

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James  (H.)     Essays  on  Money,  Exchanges,  and  Political  Economy.     London,  1S20. 
Jensen  (Adolf).     Aus  Brief  en   Adolf  Jensen's  mit  einem  Vorvvorte  des  Empfangers. 

Berlin,  1879,  8vo.  10920.  ee.  13. 

Jevons  (W.  S.)     Investigations  in  Currency  and  Finance,  edited  by  Prof.  Foxwell. 

London,  1884. 

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.\  Serious  Fall  in  the  Value  of  Gold  ascertained,  and  its  social  effects  set  forth. 

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Jobert  {\^o\x\s)  Jesuit.     The  Knowledge  of  Medals,  1697,  Svo.  602.  c.  5. 

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last  quarter  of  the  seventh  century.  The  work  was  originally  written  in  Greek,  then,  in  1602,  translated 
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written  on  clear  parchment  and  bound  in  thick  wooden  boards,  covered  with  leather.  The  earlier  por- 
tions of  the  work  consist  of  Biblical  tradition  and  Greek  fable  ;  the  Roman  history,  though  greatly 
coloured  by  secretarian  hatred,  is  often  fresh  and  interesting  ;  the  contemporaneous  history,  chiefly 
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Keary  (C.  F.)    Catalogue  of  English  Coins.    London,  1887,  Svo. 

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titled: "An  attempt  to  prove  that  the  Kings  of  England  neither  debased,  de- 
graded, nor  altered  the  value  of  their  coins.") 


lUHLlDC.RAPIiV. 


XVll 


Ker  (David).     The  Mineral  Wealth  of  Central  Asia.     Geop.  Map.,  II. 
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Concordia  Chronolojjia.     .     .     .    technitam  ct  historicam.   Paris,  1670. 

Phillippe  I^bbe,  a  Jesuit  of  Hournfs,  born  1607,  was  a  compiler,  rather  than  an  author.  His  prin- 
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Lam.vs  (.Manuel  dc).     Spanish  Numismatic  Author. 

L.v.NDKi.N  (11.)  De  r  or.  de  son  etat  dans  la  nature,  de  son  exploitation,  de  la  nietal- 
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Traite  de  1'  or.     Paris,  1863. 

L'Anonymk  d'  Ac(,)iiT.\iNK.  Chronique. 

L.^ROMBIKRE.     Theurie  et  practiijue  dcs  obligations. 

Lansdkll  (Henry)  Ri"i\     'I'hrough  Siberia.     London,  1S82,  8vo. 

L.\ST.\M<)S.\.    .Spanish  Numismatic  Author. 

LaiderdaI-E  (Earl of).  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Origin  of  Public  Wealth,  and 
into  the  means  and  causes  of  its  Increase.    Edinburgh,  i?i)4,  8vo. 

LaI-'R  (P.)    De  la  production  ilcs  mctau.\  prccieux  en  Californie.     Paris.  1862,  8vo. 

L.vvoi.v  (Henri).  Catalogue  des  Monnais  Musulmanes  de  la  IJibliotheque  Nationale. 
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L.WV  (John),  0/  Lauriston.  Money  and  Trade  considered;  with  a  proposal  for  supply- 
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Le.\ke  (Stephen  Slartin).  Historical  .Account  of  English  money.  London,  1726,  Svo. 
(.\n  arid  little  book,  purely  numismatic.) 

Lebon  (Gus.)     The  Crown. 

Legale  (F.  O.)    Codice  di  Commercio  Ottomano.     Versione  Italiana,  1S51,  Svo. 

Leitch  (John).  Scientific  System  of  .Mythology.  Trans,  from  the  German  of  C.  O. 
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LenoRMAnt  (Fran9ois).  Essai  sur  1'  organization  politique  et  economique  de  la 
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(^UN- 


TTISTORY  OF  THE  PRECTOUS  METALS 


CHAPTER  I. 


Gold,  the  pioneer  of  conquest  and  civilization — The  only  metal  furnished  by  nature 
ready  for  use — The  earliest  metal  known  to  man — Its  use  for  coinage — Method  of 
extracting  it — Copper  more  ancient  than  silver — Silver  the  latest  of  the  precious  metals 
— Placer  and  vein  mining — Earliest  gold  coins,  the  rama-tankahs  of  India — No  cop- 
per or  silver  mining  before  the  invention  of  iron — Example  of  the  Mexicans  and  Peru- 
vians— The  archaic  Indians  and  the  Bactrians  used  gold  rings  for  money — The  small 
change  currency  was  cowrie  siiells — The  Iron  Age  in  India  is  marked  by  the  Maha- 
bharata  wars — Iron  first  supplied  the  people  with  arms — Not  yet  used  in  mining — The 
perturbations  which  had  been  occasioned  by  the  irregular  supplies  of  gold,  caused  the 
IJuddhist  conquerors  to  forbid  its  use — Fable  of  the  gold  ants — Mines  of  India  men- 
tioned by  ancient  authors:  Herodotus,  Strabo,  Pliny — Geology  of  India — Auriferous 
deposits — Placer  mines — Ancient  use  of  mercury — Conditions  of  mining  under  the 
Brahmins — Buddhists — Bramo-buddhists — Moslems — British — Mysore  mines. 

DESIRE  for  the  precious  metals,  rather  than  geographical  re- 
searches or  military  conquest,  is  the  principal  motive  which  has 
led  to  the  dominion  of  the  earth  by  civilized  races.  Gold  has  inva- 
riably invited  commerce,  invasion  has  followed  commerce,  and  per- 
manent occupation  has  completed  the  process.  This  order  of  events 
is  to  be  observed  in  the  remotest  past;  it  is  to  be  seen  in  operation 
to-day.  The  same  motive  that  led  Scipio  to  Spain  and  Caesar  to  Gaul, 
impelled  Columbus  to  Cathay,  Cortes  to  Mexico  and  Pizarro  to  Peru. 
It  led  Clive  to  the  conquest  and  Hastings  to  the  plunder  of  Bengal; 
at  the  present  moment  it  is  impelling  a  host  of  hardy  adventurers  into 
Africa  and  Alaska,  before  whom  the  native  tribes  will  surely  melt 
away,  leaving  their  conquerors  to  lay  the  foundations  of  new  empires. 
Of  the  three  coining  metals,  gold  is  the  only  one  which  nature  fur- 
nishes to  man,  ready  for  use,  in  more  than  minute  quantity;  and  this 
she  only  does  in  alluvions,  "  washings,"  placers,  or  beds  of  auriferous 
gravel.  Masses  of  native  silver  or  copper  are  not  unknown  to  the 
miner,  but  they  are  rare.  On  the  other  hand,  native  gold  is  or  was 
to  be  found  in  every  country  which  possessed  a  range  of  mountains; 


O  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

for  it  is  by  the  erosion  of  mountains,  most  of  which  contain  more  or 
less  auriferous  rocks,  that  gold  is  collected  by  nature  throughout 
lengthy  ages,  into  alluvions,  or  placers.  Hence  gold  must  have  been 
the  earliest  metal  known  to  man;  and  its  use,  first  for  purposes  of 
ornament  and  afterwards  as  an  universal,  intertribal  and  international 
article  of  barter,  (not  money,)  long  preceded  the  like  use  of  silver  or 
copper. 

This  deduction  is  supported  by  the  most  ancient  monuments  of  the 
Orient,  by  the  oldest  scriptures  extant,  and  by  the  rock-carvings, 
place-names,  and  other  philological  and  epigraphic  remains  of  Ori- 
ental antiquity.  Gold  is  mentioned  or  found  in  all  extant  scriptures; 
and  it  is  mentioned  more  often  and  familiarly  than  any  other  metal. 
The  Rig  Veda  Sanhita  alludes  to  "purses  "  of  gold  coins.'  It  is  un- 
fortunate for  the  supposed  antiquity  of  this  scripture — we  shall  pres- 
ently see  why — that  it  also  mentions  silver  coins,^  The  Mahab- 
harata  epic  and  the  Code  of  Manu  are  both  replete  with  allusions  to 
gold  and  silver  money,  whilst  a  Chinese  author,  referred  to  by  the 
Fathers  Dentrecollis  and  Du  Halde,  cites  "ancient  books  "  which  af- 
firm that  in  the  reign  of  Yu,  both  "gold,  silver  and  copper  coins" 
were  employed  in  China.  The  reign  of  this  hero  is  supposed  to  have 
begun  with  the  second  year  of  the  Third  Jovian  Cycle,  correspond- 
ing to  our  B.  C.  2218.  I  have  myself  possessed  bell-shaped  bronze 
coins  purporting  to  be  of  a  dynasty  scarcely  less  remote,  stamped 
with  the  legend  "Good  for  gold,"  words  which  convey  the  implica- 
tion that  gold  coins  were  previously  in  use  for  money. ^  Similar  bell- 
shaped  bronze  coins  are  now  in  the  great  collection  at  Paris.  But 
the  ages  assigned  to  them  are  doubtful,  because  the  periods  and  dates 
attributed  to  the  heroes  by  whom  they  are  supposed  to  have  been  is- 
sued, are  astrological.  As  this  reasoning  would  demolish  not  only 
Yu  and  Sung,  but  also  many  other  personages  in  whose  existence  and 
aeras  the  Western  World  is  accustomed  to  place  reliance,  I  have  hith- 

'  Strictly  speaking  a  coin  is  a  piece  of  stamped  money,  struck  by  a  cuneus,  or  punch; 
but  as  money  was  cast  long  before  it  was  struck,  and  as  our  language  possesses  no 
distinctive  name  for  a  piece  of  cast  money,  the  word  coin  will  be  used  throughout  this 
book  to  include  all  kinds  of  metallic  money,  whether  cast,  struck,  or  milled. 

*Gen,  Ale.x.  Cunningham,  in  his  "Book  of  Indian  Eras,"  ed.  1883,  p.  31,  gives 
reasons  for  believing  that  the  Code  of  Manu  in  its  present  form  is  certainly  posterior 
to  Buddhism.  The  twelve-spoked  wheel  and  the  twelve-felloed  wheel  of  the  Sun,  in 
the  Rig  Veda,  together  with  other  evidences,  prove  that  that  work  also,  that  is,  in  its 
present  form,  is  post-Buddhic,  meaning,  of  course,  later  than  the  first  Buddhic  period. 

^  The  coins  of  Sung  mentioned  in  the  te.xt  were  cast.  Del  Mar's  "  History  of  Money 
in  Ancient  States,"  p.  21. 


INDIA. 


erto  preferred  rather  to  accept  than  to  doubt  them.  For  reasons  con- 
nected with  the  use  of  irun  in  quartz  mining,  I  can  accept  them  no 
longer. 

An  absurd  theory,  which  of  late  years  has  acquired  some  currency, 
contends  that  copper  was  the  earliest  metal  used  for  coins;  then  sil- 
ver; and  lastly,  gold;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  order  of  their  present 
relative  value;  the  hypothesis  being  that  man  has  been  continually 
progressing  from  imperfect  to  more  perfect  media  of  exchange  and 
that  gold  metal  or  gold  coins  are  the  best  and  consecjuently  the  latest 
of  such  media.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  truth.  It  is  a  mere 
tissue  of  absurdity. 

It  can  be  proved  by  a  thousand  evidences  that  gold  was  used  for 
money,  ages  before  either  copper  or  silver.  It  can  also  be  demon- 
strated that  although  originally  the  best  substance  out  of  which  money 
can  be  made,  it  is  now  one  of  the  worst.  Although  it  is  so  widely  diffused 
by  nature  that  it  may  be  found  in  almost  any  kind  of  metamorphic 
rock  or  earth,  or  in  any  of  tlie  drift,  washings,  or  sediment  from 
such  rocks,  yet  it  is  usually  deposited  ab  initio  in  quartz  and  that,  too, 
in  such  fine  particles  that  it  is  difficult  and  expensive  to  collect. 
Hence  when  the  superficial  "  placers  "  or  natural  washings  which  con- 
tain the  coarsest  gt>ld  are  exhausted,  the  supply  of  the  metal  which 
has  now  to  be  obtained  from  the  rocks  become  unstable,  spasmodic, 
or  irregular;  and  these  are  vital  objections  to  its  unrestricted  use  for 
coins.  Another  serious  objection  is  due  to  its  indestructibility,  a  fact 
which  by  increasing  its  volume  (as  money)  often  lowers  its  value 
throughout  long  periods  and  impairs  its  exactness  as  a  measure  of  the 
value  of  other  things.  This  was  the  cause  of  the  Anti-gold  crusade 
of  1850. 

The  Hindus,  whom  we  affect  to  despise,  were  better  informed  on 
this  subject.  Their  astrology,  which  in  our  Western  conceit  is  only  a 
subject  for  contempt,  evinced  a  profounder  knowledge  of  mining  than 
our  newly  born  political  economy.  Their  Four  Ages  of  the  World 
were  first  the  Creda-joga,  or  Golden  Age;  second,  Treda-joga,  or 
Silver  Age;  third,  Touvabar-joga,  or  Bronze  Age;  and  fourth,  Cali- 
joga,  or  Iron  Age.  But  in  fact  neither  of  these  systems  are  correct. 
There  is  no  such  harmony  or  symetry  in  the  order  of  the  discovery 
or  use  of  the  metals. 

The  ancient  method  of  extracting  gold  was  the  same  as  that  which 
is  still  practiced,  excepting  perhaps  as  to  the  ure  of  mercury  for  amal- 
gamation: and  even  as  to  this  art,  there  are  not  waiUJng  evidences 
that  it  was  well  known  to  the  East  Indians,  the  Phoenicians,  the  Per- 


8  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

sians,  and  the  Greeks/  The  old  and  new  methods  of  obtaining  gold 
differ  chiefly  in  details,  not  in  principle.  The  gold  was  anciently  sep- 
arated from  the  gravel,  sand,  or  pulverized  rock  which  contained  it, 
by  means  of  water  and  its  own  superior  gravity :  and  such  is  still  the 
method  in  vogue.  The  mechanical  power  in  ancient  times  was  the 
labour  of  slaves  and  captives,  and  this  was  quite  as  cheap  and  per- 
haps cheaper  than  is  now  machinery,  with  either  steam  or  water  power. 
Copper  was  probably  the  next  metal  to  gold  which  man  learnt  to 
extract  and  reduce.*  It  is  often  found  in  a  native  state;  it  is  very 
widely  diffused;  it  is  quite  abundant.  The  present  state  of  archaeo- 
logical research  does  not  enable  us  to  locate  all  the  principal  copper 
mines  of  the  ancients,  nor  to  compute  the  quantity  of  metal  which 
they  yielded:  but  it  is  believed  that  both  the  Hindus  and  Chinese 
commanded  supplies  sufficiently  ample  to  warrant  them  in  making 
coins  of  this  metal  at  a  period  which  may  be  fixed  approximately  at 
about  twelve  centuries  before  our  sera.  From  that  time  down  to  the 
Roman  period,  the  vicissitudes  of  mining  and  of  wars,  which  altered 
the  possession  of  mines,  were  such  that  copper  was  often  too  scarce 
in  one  or  another  country  to  warrant  its  sole  use  for  coins :  and  other 
expedients  had  to  be  resorted  to.  But  on  the  whole,  it  maintained 
its  ground  longer  and  more  satisfactorily  everywhere  than  either  gold 
or  silver.  Indeed,  until  the  opening  of  the  Saxon  silver  mines,  in  the 
middle  ages,  copper,  throughout  the  entire  civilized  world, was  much 
more  truly  and  essentially  the  material  of  money,  than  either  of  the 
other  metals,  or  indeed  any  other  substance.  Viewed  from  this  point, 
its  history  as  one  of  the  precious  metals,  has  not  received  the  atten- 
tion which  its  importance  deserves.  Copper  was  one  of  the  greatest 
articles  of  commerce  with  the  Phoenicians,  who  derived  a  large  sup- 
ply from  the  mines  of  Nubia,  that  at  one  time  supplied  the  whole  of 

*  Beneath  the  ancient  mining--mill  for  pulverizing  quartz — and  often  beneath  the 
modern  mill — is  placed  a  covered  box  into  which  the  mercury,  laden  with  gold  caught 
from  the  "  pulp  "  of  the  mill,  is  made  to  flow.  It  is  into  this  box  that  dishonest 
workmen  are  wont  to  dip  their  fingers,  to  steal  the  precious  amalgam.  It  seems  more 
than  likely  that  the  ancients,  in  order  to  intimidate  thieves,  feigned  that  the  metal 
was  sacred  to  Mercury,  and  thus  gave  it  the  name  of  that  god,  whom  mythologists 
have  commonly  identified  with  Bacchus,  Osiris,  Buddha,  les  Chrishna,  etc.  Should 
this  conjecture  prove  to  be  well  founded,  it  will  account  for  the  fable  attached  to  most 
of  these  deities,  that  whilst  yet  an  infant  he  was  confined  in  a  box  and  that  the  rash 
mortal  who  opened  it  was  immediately  blinded  or  struck  with  madness.  Cf.  voc.  Eur- 
ipilus  and  Ericthonius  in  liell's  "  Pantheon,"  i,  122,  292,  from  Pausanias.  In  modern 
mills  the  mercury  box  is  under  lock  and  key. 

^  ^sculanus,  or  N.%  was  the  father  of  the  god  Argention;  "  because  copper  is  older 
than  silver."     Noel,  Die.  F'able. 


INDIA. 


the  western  world.  They  combined  with  it  the  tin  obtained  from  the 
islands  of  Cyprus  and  Britain,  to  make  the  bronze  of  commerce.  Cop- 
per was  used  by  some  of  the  northern  nations  of  Europe  in  the  fab- 
rication of  weapons,  at  a  period  and  under  circumstances  when  steel 
or  iron  appeared  to  be  more  precious  than  gold.  This  has  been  illus- 
trated in  Denmark,  by  the  opening  of  tumuli  of  very  remote  ages, 
from  which  have  been  collected  knives,  daggers,  swords  and  imple- 
ments of  industry,  many  of  which  are  preserved  in  the  national  mu- 
seum at  Copenhagen.  Some  of  these  implements  have  blades  of  gold 
and  edges  of  iron.  Some  of  them  are  formed  of  copjier,  with  edges 
of  iron.  The  profuse  application  of  copper  and  gold,  when  contrasted 
with  the  parsimony  evident  in  the  expenditure  of  iron,  seems  to  prove 
that  the  former  were  much  more  common  products  than  the  latter.* 

Silver  is  rarely  found  in  a  native  state,  and  then  only  in  compara- 
tively small  quantities.  It  is  commonly  mingleil  with  other  metals 
and  minerals,  forming  a  comiK:)und  known  as  ore  and  presenting  none 
of  those  attributes,  either  to  the  eye-sight,  or  the  other  senses,  which 
distinguish  it  when  freed  from  its  matrices.  Most  of  the  ores  of  silver 
are  difficult  to  reduce;  a  fact  that  bespeaks  a  long  familiarity  with 
the  art  of  smelting,  before  silver  could  have  become  as  amenable  to 
treatment  as  copper.  It  is  therefore  deemed  ipiite  safe  to  regard  this 
one  as  the  last  of  the  three  great  coining  metals  which  came  into  use. 
With  regard  to  its  diffusion,  silver  was  originally  as  widely  spread  as 
gold,  that  is  to  say,  it  occurred  in  nearly  all  the  metamorphic  and 
some  of  the  primitive  rocks  and  (when  in  situ)  nearly  always  in  con- 
junction with  gold.  Its  susceptibility  to  o.xidation  prevented  its  fur- 
ther diffusion. 

Gold  remains  unaltered  and  uninfiuencetl  by  the  action  of  tlie  ele- 
ments, it  is  often  carried  away  long  distances  from  its  original  piace 
of  occurrence  by  the  breaking  down  of  the  rocks  which  contain  it, 
and  their  formation  anew  elsewhere,  either  as  other  rocks,  or  as  jilacers 
of  gravel  and  sanil;  whilst  silver  is  only  to  be  found  in  the  places  of 
its  original  occurrence.  A  single  gold  belt,  as  the  Mother  Lode  of 
California,  may  be  the  parent  of  innumerable  goUl  districts  and  Poor 
men's  mines,  some  of  them  far  removed  from  the  lode.  Silver  is  soon 
driven  into  new  mineral  combinations,  or  dissipated  and  lost  to  view. 
A  silver  belt,  though  it  be  as  rich  as  the  Comstock  Lode  of  Nevada, 

•.*^ciemihc  I'ress,  August  7,  iSSo.  In  the  early  portion  of  1897  native  copgcr  work- 
ings of  great  antiquity  were  discovered  about  twenty  miles  from  the  head  of  Gitche 
Gumee,  the  Big  .'^ea- Water  of  Indian  legend  and  the  Lake  Superior  of  to-day.  Del 
Mar's  *'  History  of  Money  in  America."  p.  2q. 


lO  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

produces  no  progeny.  Hence  silver  is  only  to  be  obtained  by  quartz- 
mining,  or  reef-mining,  which  requires  the  aid  of  capital,  association 
and  machinery.  This  fact  has  had  no  little  influence  upon  the  history 
of  money:  and  of  mankind. 

Veins  of  metalliferous  quartz  are  usually  imbedded  in  hard  rock, 
such  as  trap,  slate,  or  gneiss;  and  these  veins  are  for  the  most  part 
narrow  and  expensive  to  extract,  on  account  of  the  great  extent  of 
excavation  needed  in  order  to  secure  a  comparatively  small  quantity 
of  the  vein.  Thus,  if  the  passages  are  made  high  enough  for  a  man 
to  walk  through  erect  and  wide  enough  for  two  men  to  pass  each 
other,  or  to  permit  the  swing  of  a  hammer  they  must  be  seven  by  four 
feet  in  dimensions.  If  the  quartz  vein  is  but  one  foot  wide  (a  high 
average)  it  follows  that  twenty-eight  cubic  feet  of  rock  have  to  be 
excavated,  in  order  to  secure  seven  cubic  feet  of  quartz,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  shafts,  winzes,  adits,  cross-cuts,  pumping  and  other  dead  work. 
Now  seven  cubic  feet  of  quartz  will  weigh  about  half  a  ton,  and  if 
the  quartz  goes  ^2  sterling  or  $10  to  the  ton  weight  (a  high  average) 
the  produce  is  jP,\  sterling  against  the  cost  of  excavating  and  con- 
veying to  grass  twenty-eight  cubic  feet,  or  more,  of  worthless  stone. 
When  this  work  has  to  be  done,  as  the  ancients  did  it,  without  the 
use  of  explosives,  it  becomes  exceedingly  toilsome  and  expensive: 
and  only  the  richest  class  of  quartz  veins — of  which  the  number  was 
exceedingly  limited — and  these  only  for  a  short  distance  downward, 
paid  to  work.  If  we  go  back  to  a  period  before  the  use  of  steel  tools, 
it  may  be  safely  concluded  that  the  opening  of  a  quartz  mine  was 
practically  impossible.  The  only  mines  that  could  have  been  exten- 
sively worked  were  gold  placers,  or  alluvions. 

The  oldest  coins  extant  are  probably  the  ram-tenkis  or  rama-tan- 
kahs  of  Brahminical  India.  They  are  made  of  electrum,  a  mixture, 
in  this  case  probably  a  natural  mixture,  of  gold  and  silver.  Their  pre- 
cise £era  cannot  be  determined,  but  they  are  probably  later  than  the 
First  Buddha  and  yet  older  than  any  coins  of  the  Occident.  The 
reader  will  find  this  question  treated  at  length  in  my  works  on  Money, 
a  subject  to  which  the  comparative  antiquity  of  coins  more  properly 
belongs.  I  am  here  concerned  less  with  money  than  with  the  precious 
metals,  of  which  money  has  usually  been  made. 

Although  we  have  no  copper  coins  or  moneys  of  the  Occident  ear- 
lier than  the  Etruscan  or  Roman  ingots  attributed  by  Plin)'  to  Servius 
Tullius,  we  have  bronze  weapons  and  implements  several  centuries 
older  than  the  aera  asigned  to  that  monarch;  whilst  the  general  use 
of  copper  and  bronze,  certainly  in   the  Orient,  and  perhaps  in   the 


INDIA. 


Occident,  may  be  safely  carried  back  at  least  a  century  and  probably 
several  centuries  earlier  than  the  appearance  of  silver.  As  for  the 
evidences  of  Egyptian  arch;vology  and  of  the  archivological  remains 
of  Assyria  and  other  countries  whose  a;ras  and  chronology  have  been 
built  upon  the  supposed  antiquity  of  P^gyptian  monuments,  their  al- 
leged dates  rest  upon  the  fragmentary  and  doubtful  evidences  ascribed 
to  Manetho,  as  reported  by  various  conflicting  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties; a  discussion  of  which  would  open  up  topics  having  no  connection 
with  the  present  work.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  in  the  opinion  of  many 
eminent  Egyptologists,  the  chronology  built  upon  Manetho's  alleged 
list  of  alleged  kings  is  far  from  being  satisfactory.  The  zera  which 
we  are  now  about  to  adduce  has  a  much  more  solid  foundation. 

The  concurrent  testimonies  of  both  Indian,  Assyrian,  Babylonian 
and  Greek  tradition,  as  well  as  its  own  etymology,  fix  the  discovery 
of  iron — that  is  to  say  the  invention  of  smelting  iron  ore  and  of  mak- 
ing iron  and  steel,  or  the  escape  of  the  invention  from  the  temples, 
which  before  that  time  they  may  have  known  and  kept  secret — at  a 
period  not  earlier  than  the  fifteenth  century  B.  C.  At  all  events,  this  is 
the  highest  date  that  can  be  assigned  to  it,  for  it  was  a  rule  and  a 
necessity  of  sacred  tradition  and  mythology  to  date  its  heroes  and 
their  e.xploits  as  far  back  as  contemporary  credibility  would  permit, 
both  in  order  that  they  might  not  be  ante-dated  by  like  heroes  and 
exploits  in  the  traditions  and  mythologies  of  other  nations,  as  well 
to  procure  for  them  all  the  veneration  that  is  accorded  to  superior 
antiquity.  This  rera —  1 406  B.  C.  — was  that  of  the  apotheosis  of  Brahma, 
(1406,)  of  les  Chrishna  or  the  first  Buddha,  (1394,)  of  Nin-Ies,  or 
Nineis,  (1406,)  of  Belus,  (1390,)  of  the  Dionysian  Jasiusand  the  Ten 
Dactyles  of  Mount  Ida,  (1406,)  and  of  Osiris,  (1350.)  All  these  he- 
roes were  credited  with  the  invention  of  iron,  and  there  is  nowhere 
in  history  or  mythology  any  mention  of  iron  of  a  date  which  can  pos- 
itively be  fixed  prior  to  their  epochs. 

Until  this  date  is  overthrown,  not  hypothetically,  but  positively, 
it  may  be  safely  assumed  that  it  marks  not  only  the  xra.  of  iron,  but 
also  that  of  quartz-mining;  whether  of  gold,  copper,  or  silver.  I  am 
well  aware  that  gold  can  be  picked  out  of  quartz  crevices  with  a  boar's 
tooth  and  that  a  bronze  tool  can  be  made  of  sufficient  hartlness  to 
cut  (with  difficulty)  some  of  the  softer  and  rarer  kinds  of  silver-bear- 
ing and  copper-bearing  rocks;  but  it  will  require  something  more  than 
mere  literary  evidences  to  prove  that  quartz  or  rock-mining,  upon  a 
scale  sufficiently  ample  and  permanent  to  supply  the  states  of  antiquity 
with  gold  and  silver  money,  or  with  bronze  weapons,  tools  and  uten- 


12  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

sils,  could  have  been  conducted  without  the  use  of  iron  and  steel/ 
The  ^Mexicans  and  Peruvians  had  no  iron,  consequently  they  had 
neither  silver  nor  copper,  except  in  such  comparatively  small  quanti- 
ties as  nature  furnishes  of  these  metals  in  a  native  state.  Their  prin- 
cipal metal  was  gold,  which  they  got  from  placers.  When  these  placers 
were  exhausted  and  their  produce  was  absorbed  in  the  arts,  the  na- 
tive mining  industry  and  the  use  of  gold  coins  came  to  an  end.  For 
money,  they  were  afterwards  obliged  to  use  cacao  beans  and  a  few 
pieces  of  tin,  which  metal,  like  placer-gold,  can  be  got  by  washing, 
or  ' '  streaming  "  surface  deposits.  An  instructive  chapter  on  this  sub- 
ject can  be  found  in  the  author's  "History  of  Money  in  America." 
The  testimony  gathered  by  Sir  John  Lubbock  in  his  "Prehistoric 
Times,"  is  very  decisive  concerning  the  antiquity  of  coins.  "No  in- 
scriptions or  coins  have  yet  been  found  in  any  antiquities  which  can 
be  referred  to  the  Bronze  Age."  (p.  7.)  The  reason  is  that  neither 
"inscriptions,"  meaning  inscriptions  on  stone,  nor  "coins,"  w'hich 
involve  the  use  of  a  "die,"  can  practically  be  cut  without  steel  tools, 
"The  entire  absence  of  coins  and  of  inscriptions  on  the  bronze  finds 
is  very  remarkable."  (p.  16.)  On  the  contrary,  I  should  regard  it  as 
still  more  remarkable  if  a  "coin"  or  epigraphic  inscription  could  be 
traced  to  an  age  when  it  v.^as  practically  impossible  to  produce  either 
of  them.  "Mr.  Ramsauer,  for  many  years  Director  of  the  Saltmines 
at  Hallstadt,  near  Salzburg  in  Austria,  has  discovered  an  extensive 
cemetery  belonging  to  this  transitional  period,"  (between  the  Bronze 
and  Iron  Ages.)  "  He  has  opened  no  less  than  9S0  graves,  evidently 
of  those  who  even  at  that  early  period  worked  the  salt  mines  which 
are  still  so  celebrated."  (At  that  early  period  the  "mines"  may  have 
consisted  of  little  more  than  a  salt-spring,  or  a  salt-marsh,  the  efflor- 
escence of  the  great  deposit  beneath.)  "  Another  interesting  point  in 
the  Hallstadt  bronze,  as  in  that  of  the  true  Bronze  Age,  is  the  ab- 
sence of  silver,  lead  and  zinc,  excepting  of  course,  as  mere  impurities 
in  the  bronze.  This  is  the  more  significant,  inasmuch  as  the  presence 
not  only  of  the  tin  itself,  but  also  of  glass,  amber,  and  ivory  in  the 
graves  indicates  the  existence  of  an  extensive  commerce.  Moreover, 
as  Mortet  well  pointed  out,  the  absence  of  silver  cannot  be  accidental, 
because  the  bronze  of  Hallstadt  contains  no  lead  and  the  absence  of 
lead  entails  that  of  silver,  since  the  latter  could  not,  at  least  in  Eu- 
rope, be  obtained  without  the  former.  In  the  above  9S0  graves  525 
were  of  bodies  buried  in  the  ordinary  manner.    These  contained  gold 

'  The  bearing  of  this  conclusion  upon  the  pretended  antiquity  of  the  Egyptian, 
Assyrian  and  Chaldean  monuments,  is  a  subject  with  which  we  have  no  present  concern. 


INDIA 


13 


ornaments,  6;  bronze  ornaments,  1471;  bronze  vessels,  3;  bronze 
weapons,  18;  iron  weapons,  161;  other  objects  of  iron,  2^;  amber 
ornaments,  165 ;  glass  ornaments,  38;  pottery,  334;  stone,  57.  The 
remaining  453  graves  contained  burnt  corpses."  In  these  remaining 
graves  the  proportion  of  iron  to  bronze  objects  was  nearly  double. 

The  Massagetoe  made  use  (probably  for  weapons)  of  both  gold  and 
bronze;  they  used  neither  iron  nor  silver.  (Herod.  Clio.,  ccxv.)  The 
(Ireek  and  Roman  writers  were  accustomed  to  speak  of  all  other  na- 
tions with  so  much  contempt  that  the  significance  of  this  passage  will 
be  lost  upon  the  reader  who  may  not  be  aware  that  the  Massaget^ 
formed  a  portion  of  the  great  Scythic  commonwealth,  which,  at  the 
jieriod  alluded  to  by  Herodotus,  was  far  more  populous  and  wealthy 
than  both  Grcere  and  Rome  combined.  (Encyc.  Brit.,  art.  "  Kho- 
zares. ") 

The  Scythians  possessed  gold,  but  neither  silver  nor  brass.  (Herod. 
Mel.,  Lxxi.)  Some  such  condition  of  affairs  as  this  must  have  existed 
generally  throughout  the  Orient  previous  to  the  invention  of  iron — 
that  is  to  say,  before  the  fifteenth  to  the  thirteenth  centuries  before 
our  sera — a  date  that  corresponds  roughly  with  that  of  the  Mahabha- 
rata  wars.  The  Indians  and  perhaps  also  the  Mongolians  may  have 
used  gold  coins  or  bangs  for  money;  but  they  certainly  had  no  money 
of  silver  or  copper.  The  small  change  currency  of  both  peoples  con- 
sisted of  cowrie  shells,  which  are  mentioned  in  writings  of  tiie  high- 
est antiquity. 

The  fitful  supplies  of  gold  from  the  placers  of  the  Orient  and  the 
great  perturbations  of  prices  which  must  have  been  occasioned  when 
there  were  no  adequate  supplies  of  silver  or  copper  to  complement 
the  gold,  are  deductions  which  derive  corroboration  from  an  other- 
wise inexplicable  ordinance  of  the  Vinaya.  This  is  an  interdict  against 
u>ing  the  precious  metals,  traces  of  which  will  be  found  wherever  the 
Huddhic  religion  penetrated,  namely,  in  Laddak,  Tibet, Ceylon, China, 
Corea,  Malayia,  (the  "Golden  Chersonesus"  of  the  Greek  writers,) 
and  even  in  Babylonia,  Greece  and  Italy.  Two  instances,  one  of  the 
earliest  and  one  of  the  latest  enforcements  of  this  interdict,  will  be 
given  in  this  chapter.  The  reader  will  find  a  number  of  them  men- 
tioned elsewhere. 

"The  Katiari  (Getae  and  other  Scythians  of  the  time  of  Darius" 
(and  probably  also  those  of  a  much  earlier  date)  "regarded  gold  as 
sacred.  Two  of  the  sons  of  their  founder,  Targitaus,  Son  of  God, 
were  burnt  by  touching  sacred  gold,  but  tiie  youngest  was  unharmed 
and  by  this  sign  he  became  their  ruler.   They  have  a  tradition  that  if 


14  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

the  person  in  whose  custody  this  (sacred)  gold  remains,  sleeps  in  the 
open  air  during  the  time  of  their  annual  festival,  he  dies  before  the 
end  of  the  year."  (Herod.  Mel.,  v-vii.) 

"  Oppert  (1880)  states  that  the  searching  and  digging  for  precious 
metals  (in  Corea)  is  strictly  forbidden  to  the  natives  and  that  this 
prohibition  is  so  rigorously  kept  up  that  transgressors  are  threatened 
with  capital  punishment."  * 

During  the  first  Buddhic  period,  that  is  to  say,  some  time  between 
the  fourteenth  and  ninth  centuries  before  our  tera,  copper  and  after- 
wards silver  appears  to  have  been  first  produced  from  the  native  mines 
of  India.  This  inference  is  derived  from  the  archaeological  finds  of 
bronze  implements,  which  become  far  more  plentiful  after  the  Iron 
Age  than  before  it,  and  from  the  apparent  epoch  of  the  Behat  and 
Coimbatore  silver  coins,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  Prinsep,  Wilson, 
Thomas,  and  Marsden,  are  more  ancient  than  the  Greek  invasions  of 
India. ^  Quintus  Curtius,  in  his  life  of  Alexander  the  Great,  informs 
us  that  Omphis,  one  of  the  native  kings,  presented  the  conqueror, 
among  other  things,  with  "coined  silver  to  the  aiPiOunt  of  eighty 
talents.'"" 

The  use  of  silver  money  in  India  at  this  early  period  could  hardly 
have  been  general.  It  must  have  been  confined  to  those  nations  or 
districts  where  Brahminism  or  Brahmo-Buddhism  prevailed.  Among 
the  Buddhists  proper  the  interdict  with  reference  to  the  use  of  the 
precious  metals  seems  to  have  been  always  religiously  observed.  Gor- 
gjs,  the  miner,  who  accompanied  Alexander  the  Great,  remarked 
that  the  subjects  of  Sopeithes  were  so  little  acquainted  with  mining 
and  smelting  gold  and  silver  as  not  to  know  the  value  of  their  own 
resources  and  that  "  the  Musoi  (Buddhists)  made  no  use  of  gold  or 
silver,  although  they  had  mines  of  both  of  these  metals."  Pausanias 
has  a  similar  remark.  The  use  here  alluded  to  is  undoubtedly  money; 
and  the  remark  will  apply  as  well  to  many  parts  of  the  Orient  to-day 
as  it  did  then.  The  reason  for  this  abstention  is  to  be  found  in  the 
venerated  ordinances  ascribed  to  Buddha,  or  les  Chrishna. 

As  for  the  story  of  the  gold-seeking  ants  told  by  Herodotus  and 
repeated  by  Nearchus  (in  Strabo;,  by  Pliny  and  other  ancient  writers 

8  See  Pliny's  Nat.  Hist.,  vi,  xxxi,  7;  Moorcroft's  Travels;  Treveck's  Travels;  Cun- 
ningham's '•  Laddak,"  (Little  Tibet),  p.  232;  V.  Ball,  "Geological  Survey  of  India," 
part  III,  Econ.  Geol.,  ed.  18S1,  p,  213:  Lock  on  "Gold,"  pp.  303,  360;  Appleton's 
Encyc,  art.  "  Buddhism,"  iv,  68;  and  the  authorities  mentioned  elsewhere  through- 
out the  present  work. 

*  "  Hist,  of  Money  in  Ancient  States,"  p.  67.  '**  Quintus  Curtius,  vni,  xiii,  41. 


INDIA. 


15 


and  "explained"  by  numerous  modern  ones,  it  is  a  mere  fable  de- 
rived from  tile  Maluibharata  epic  aiui  sent  down  the  stream  of  time, 
like  a  "  sluice-rt)bber,"  to  gather  substance  as  it  went  along." 

Turning  now  from  inferences  to  fact,  so  far  as  any  facts  were  known 
to  the  classical  authors  concerning  the  sources  of  gold  in  India,  let 
us  give  hearing  to  Pliny  and  Strabo.  Says  Pliny:  "The  Dardit  in- 
habit a  country  the  richest  of  all  India  in  gold  mines, wliile  the  Setce 
have  the  most  abundant  mines  of  silver."  (vi,  xxii,  4  )"In  the  coun- 
try of  the  Nareai  on  the  other  side  of  the  Capitalia  Range  (the  high- 
est in  India)  there  is  a  very  great  number  of  mines,  both  of  gold  and 
silver,  in  which  the  natives  work  extensively."  (vi,  xxiii,  5.)  "Just 
within  the  mouth  of  the  River  Intlus  there  are  two  islands,  named 
Chryse  and  Argyre,  so  called,  I  think,  from  the  deposits  of  gold  and 
silver  which  have  been  found  there:  for  I  cannot  believe,  what  some 
have  asserted,  that  the  soil  consists  wholly  of  these  metals."  (vi, 
xxiii,  II.) 

The  countries  of  the  Dardoe  and  Set?e  have  been  conjectured  to  be 
Darjilling  and  Sikkim,  situated  upon  an  affluent  of  the  Clanges, 
which  descends  from  the  Himalayas  north  of  the  southern  borders  of 
Great  Tibet.  It  is  through  the  valley  formed  by  this  affluent  that 
winds  the  main  road  from  Great  Tibet  by  which  a  part  of  the  gold 
and  silver  produced  near  the  confines  of  that  country  finds  its  way  to 
the  valleys  of  India.  During  the  eighteenth  century  of  our  a^ra  the 
annual  value  of  the  trade  by  this  route,  including  the  precious  metals, 
silk,  tea,  knives,  paper,  horses  and  other  commodities,\vas  only  30.000 
rupees,  say  ^3,000.  On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  Campbell,  in  a  recent 
report,  says  that  the  gold  imported  from  Tibet  through  Nepal,  Dar- 
jilling and  Sikkim,  amounted  to  the  value  of  two  lakhs  (;^20,ooo)  per 
annum.  (Lock,  342.)  What  it  amounted  to  in  the  days  of  Megas- 
thenes,  or  even  of  Pliny,  we  have  no  means  of  determining.  Mac 
Crindle  ("  Invasion  of  India  by  Alexander  the  Great,"  1893,  p.  342) 
places  the  Dards  in  Cashmir  on  the  Upper  Indus;  in  other  words, 
Tibet.  Lock  (461)  regards  the  Derdai  of  Megasthenes,  the  Dardce 
of  Pliny,  the  Daradrai  of  Ptolemy  and  the  Daradas  of  Sanscrit  lit- 
erature, as  the  Dards  of  to-day  and  their  land  the  plateau  of  Chajatal, 
in  Great  Tibet.  "The  gold  fields  are  carefully  watched  by  the  L'hassa  au- 
thorities: a  gold  commissioner  called  Sar-pun  (Sar=seer:  pun=goUl) 


"  Sluice-robbers  are  lumps  or  balls  of  pipe-clay,  found  in  placer  mines,  to  which 
loose  pieces  of  gold  tenaciously  adhere  so  that  in  the  ordinary  process  of  sluicinj,',  they 
pass  down  into  the  debris,  gathering  grains  at  every  step,  and  wasting  them  at  last. 


It)  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

superintends  the  whole  of  them  and  each  field  has  a  separate  master. '* 
Any  individual  is  allowed  to  dig,  provided  he  pays  the  annual  tax  of 
one  sarshoo  weight  of  gold,  which  is  about  half  a  tola  or  two-fifths  of 
an  ounce  (say  eight  dollars)  ...  In  Tibet  gold  is  sacred  to  the  Grand 
Lama.  .  .  The  same  Sar-pun  makes  the  round  of  the  Tibetan-gold- 
fields  once  a  year  to  collect  the  taxes.  .  .  Nearly  the  whole  of  the 
gold  collected  in  Western  Tibet  finds  its  way  to  Gar-tokh  (tokh,  or 
thok,  means  a  mine)  and  ultimately,  through  the  Kumauni  merchants, 
to  Hindustan."     The  annual  product  is  estimated  at  about  ^S,ooo. 

As  for  the  Argyre  and  Chryse  of  Pliny,  these,  if  indeed  they  had 
any  foundation  in  fact,  were  insignificant  sources  of  the  precious  met- 
als, whose  importance  was  magnified  by  imperfect  information  and  a 
vast  distance. 

Lock  (333),  who  is  anxious  to  locate  the  Ophir  of  King  Solomon, 
which  he  thinks  must  have  been  in  a  distant  country  that  also  pro- 
duced "ivory,  apes  and  peacocks,"  (all  of  which,  by  the  way,  were 
produced  in  Babylon)  has  discovered  the  Narae  of  Pliny  in  the  Nairs 
of  Malabar:  but  as  Megasthenes  is  not  known  to  have  dwelt  in  or 
visited  this  district,  and  Pliny  expressly  says  that  the  Narae  dwelt  on 
the  other  side  of  Capitalia,  the  highest  mountain  of  India  "  mons 
altissimas  Indicorum  Capitalia,"  our  author  in  this  respect  is  proba- 
bly mistaken.  '^  Moreover  Nairs  is  not  the  name  of  a  nation  or  tribe, 
but  of  one  of  the  castes  of  Brahminism,  a  caste  which  is  not  known 
to  have  existed  so  long  ago  as  the  time  of  Pliny  and  which,  even  if 
it  did  exist,  is  not  likely  to  have  been  recognised  or  distinguished  by 
the  Western  writers  of  that  period. 

Says  Strabo:  "  It  is  reported  by  Gorgus,  the  miner  of  Alexander, 
that  in  the  mountains  of  the  territory  of  Sopeithes  .  .  .  are  situated 
valuable  mines  of  gold  and  silver  (xv,  i,  30).  The  people  of  Musi- 
canus  "...  make  no  use  of  gold  nor  silver,  although  they  have  mines 
of  these  metals  (xv,  i,  34).     These  peculiar  people  have  no  slaves  "^ 

'-  Pun  was  also  the  Phcenician  name  for  gold.  The  "  Land  of  Pun  "  was  in  eastern. 
Egypt. 

'^  There  is  also  a  district  called  Dardistan,  which  was  once  "  the  most  prolific  por- 
tion of  the  Indus  "  valley  for  placer  mines.  Lock,  347.  On  the  whole,  Great  Tibet 
seems  to  have  been  the  principal  source  of  the  gold  reported  by  Megasthenes  and  re- 
corded by  Pliny. 

"  Homer  associates  the  Teuckroi  and  Musoi,  whom  he  says  were  worshippers  of 
Dionysius,  (Buddha.)  Moess,  or  Moses,  was  also  one  of  the  surnames  of  Buddha.  The 
Mongol  title  of  Chan  or  Khan  may  be  detected  not  only  in  Musicanus,  but  also  in 
Porti-canus,  Oxy-canus,  Assa-canus,  etc.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Vincent,  "  Voyage  of  Xear- 
chus,"  p.  i2g. 


I? 


(xv,  i.  54).  Says  Sandrocottus:  The  afllueiUs  of  the  Ganges  "like  the 
rivers  of  Iberia  (Armenia)  bring  chnvn  gold  dust,  part  of  which  is 
paid  as  a  tax  to  the  king  "  (xv,  i,  57). 

Gold  occurs  in  beds  of  detrital  gravel  in  all  the  mountainous  and 
hilly  regions  of  India,  and  is  borne  by  the  streams  to  lower  levels. 
The  native  names  for  gold,  as  Pon,  or  Pun  (Tamil)  Suvarna  or  Soo- 
wurn  (Sanscrit)  and  Hemma,  Honnaand  Chinna  (Kanada),  Son,  etc., 
are  still  borne  by  innumerable  districts,  towns,  gulches  and  streams, 
in  testimony  of  their  auriferous  character  (Lock  318-23  and  331).  But 
these  alluvial  deposits  have  long  since  been  exhausted,  so  that  noth- 
ing remains  which  deserves  the  name  of  pay-dirt.  Quartz  mines  also 
occur  in  numerous  districts  of  India,  chiefly  in  Mysore,  in  the  hills 
near  Ponderpoor  on  the  upper  Christna,  in  Bengal  and  in  the  Punjab 
near  Attock  on  the  upper  Indus.  Some  of  these  mines  were  worked 
by  the  Indians  at  various  periods  before  our  tera,  down  to  that  of  the 
Moslem  conquest,  others  by  or  under  the  Moslems  down  to  a  recent 
period,  and  again  others,  chiefly  re-workings  and  extensions  of  an- 
cient Indian  mines  in  Mysore,  by  the  English;  these  last  being  sub- 
stantially the  only  mines  which  are  productive  at  the  present  time. 
The  geology  of  India,  especially  with  reference  to  its  gold-bearing 
rocks,  has  been  ably  treated  by  Mr.  Ball  and  other  writers,  most  of 
whom  have  been  alluded  to  in  Lock's  bulky  work.  It  is  sufficient  here 
to  say  that  the  gold  occurs  for  the  most  part  in  quartz  veins,  in  niet- 
amorphic  and  sub-metamorphic  rocks,  especially  the  latter,  and  that 
the  most  ancient  miners  treated  it  as  we  do  now,  with  mercury.  (Lock, 
337.)  The  few  notices  which  occur  of  the  ancient  silver  or  copper 
mines  of  India  will  be  found  in  the  "History  of  Money  in  Ancient 
States,"  p. 70,  note  3,  and  in  the  first  edition  of  the  present  work  p. 
6,  n.      These  mines  were  never  important. 

The  conditions  under  which  gold  was  obtained  by  the  earlier  Brah- 
mins of  India  are  indicated  by  several  circumstances.  The  Brahmins 
were  the  conquerors  of  the  country;  they  enslaved  the  conquered;  they 
did  not  permit  them  to  bear  arms ;  the  use  of  iron  or  steel  implements  was 
unknown;  the  mines  belonged  to  the  sovereign;  and  gold  was  made 
sacred.  When  the  Brahminical  rule  was  overthrown  by  the  Buddhists, 
about  the  13th  century  before  our  a;ra,  the  latter  forbade  the  mining 
of  gold  and  silver.  These  circumstances  point  to  slave-mining  on  the 
part  of  the  Brahmins  and  to  a  cruelty  so  hideous  that  it  was  made  a 
prime  article  of  the  Buddhist  religion  to  shut  down  the  mines  alto- 
gether. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  centuries  the  Brahmins  recovered  their  con- 


l8  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

trol  of  India,  when  mining,  presumably  with  slaves,  was  resumed.  In 
the  reign  of  Asoka,  during  the  third  century  B.C.,  the  Buddhist  re- 
ligion once  more  regained  its  ascendancy.  Knowing  its  hostility  to 
slavery,  we  must  believe  that  slave-mining  was  again  put  down.  When 
the  Chinese  missionary  Fa-hian  visited  India,  A.  D.  400,  the  Buddhist 
temples  were  once  more  overthrown,  and  Brahminism,  this  time  Budd- 
ho-Brahminism,  had  become  the  prevailing  religion.  After  that  period, 
downward  to  the  Moslem  conquest,  slave-mining  was  probably  re- 
sumed; though  there  are  not  wanting  indications  that  in  some  parts 
of  India,  notably  the  Punjab,  the  native  rulers  resigned  the  diggings 
to  free  workmen,  who,  for  the  privilege  of  working  them,  paid  a  fourth 
of  their  scant  produce  to  the  government.  Such  at  least  was  the  pro- 
portion paid  to  the  Sikh  government  in  recent  times.  (Lock,  346-8.) 
In  Laddak,  which  is  north  of  the  Punjab  and  more  properly  belongs 
to  Cashmir  or  Little  Tibet,  the  Buddhists  retained  their  ascendancy 
and  always  refrained  from  mining;  although  at  the  present  day  this 
interdict  is  practically  relaxed  in  favour  of  the  Moslems,  who  are  per- 
mitted freely  to  search  for  the  forbidden  metal. 

To  the  period  which  preceded  the  Moslem  conquest  probably  be- 
longs that  once  magnificent  temple  of  Melukote,  formerly  the  richest 
in  Mysore,  which  was  built  with  the  wealth  derived  from  the  gold 
mines  of  Chinnataghery,  near  Bellivetta.  The  slaves  have  perished; 
the  temple  is  levelled  to  the  dust;  the  religion  which  shared  this  ill- 
gotten  wealth  is  obsolete;  nothing  remains  but  the  gold,  the  cause  of 
all  this  ruin.  The  vast  spoil  in  gold  which  was  captured  in  India  at 
various  times  by  the  Moslems  (see  Chap.  XXVI)  appears  to  indicate 
a  considerable  native  production  of  this  metal ;  but  when  it  is  remem- 
ber^ that  this  spoil  represented  the  accumulations  of  many  centuries 
and  especially  when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  no  Indian  quartz  mines 
of  more  than  superficial  depths  have  been  discovered  in  modern  days; 
and  that  no  large  "dumps"  of  mining  stone  or  debris  are  known  to 
exist  anywhere  in  India,  it  must  be  concluded  that  the  product  was 
derived  chiefly  from  placers  and  river  beds. 

The  conditions  of  Moslem  mining  in  India  are  but  little  known  to 
us,  but  generally  speaking  they  included  the  prerogative  of  mines- 
royal,  and  the  practice  of  slavery,  and  mine-farming.  These  condi- 
tions were  not  changed  when  the  British  forces  effected  the  conquest 
of  India:  the  changes  that  have  been  made  are  of  later  date.  In  1830 
Mr.  F.  H.  Barber  testified  before  the  Lords  Committee  on  East  In- 
dian Affairs  that  there  \vere  no  less  than  one  hundred  thousand  slaves 
in  Malabar,  who  were  bought  and  sold  like  cattle,  the  value  of  an 


INDIA  19 

adult  man  ranj^^injj  from  5  to  20  rupees,  or  twice  as  many  sterling 
shillin^^s.  In  some  cases  the  only  clothing  of  these  people  was  a  jilantain 
leaf.  Their  wretched  condition  was  suggestive  of  baboons  rather  than 
men.  Many  of  them  were  originally  the  children  of  freemen, kidnapped 
from  their  parents  and  sold  to  the  mine  proprietors.  Wretched  as 
they  were,  the  government  denuuuled  and  collected  a  revenue  from 
them:  it  taxed  their  puttis,  or  wooden  trays,  in  which  they  washed 
the  miserable  pittance  of  gokl-dust  won  from  unwilling  nature.  The 
tax  often  exceeded  the  utmost  which  they  could  glean  from  the  gravel. 
In  1S31  Lieut.  Nicolson  made  an  official  survey  of  the  goldfields  and 
mines  of  Malabar,  and  reported  that  at  Nilambar  the  mines  were 
worked  by  Korumba  slaves,  "who  were  subjected  by  the  English  to 
horrible  cruelties  if  the  gold  they  found  was  deficient  in  quantity" 
compared  with  what  they  were  required  to  produce.  This  ill-gotten 
wealth  now  lies  stored  in  Lombard  Street:  it  calls  itself  "sound 
money;  "  and  it  demands  the  dominion  of  the  earth. 

The  recent  developement  of  gold-mining  in  Mysore  has  directed 
attention  afresh  to  the  mineral  resources  of  India.  Of  those  resources 
gold  forms  but  a  single  item,  and  an  item  interesting  for  its  future 
possibilities  rather  than  for  its  present  yield.  Yet  the  yield  is  quickly 
mounting  to  a  considerable  figure.  A  complete  statement  of  the  an- 
nual gold  production  for  the  whole  of  India  cannot  be  furnished.  The 
washing  of  auriferous  beds  and  river  deposits  takes  place  in  almost 
every  province.  But.  except  in  Mysore,  it  is  a  purely  native  industry, 
spasmodically  conducted,  on  a  very  small  scale,  and  in  regard  to  which 
no  verified  statistics  can  be  obtained.  Dr.  George  Watt,  the  Reporter 
on  Economic  Products  to  the  Government  of  India,  has,  however, 
been  able  to  collect  returns  for  eight  tracts.  The  output  for  1894 
was  211,770  ounces,  valued  at  14/3  million  rupees. 

Of  this  amount  Mysore  furnished  nearly  the  whole.  The  govern- 
ment of  that  State,  under  its  Prime  Minister,  Sir  Sheshadri  Iyer, 
offers  facilities  to  mining;  and  the  labour  difficulty,  although  some- 
times felt,  exists  only  in  a  modified  form.  The  experimental  crush- 
ings  by  the  rude  native  methods  in  1870  yielded  a  fair  percentage  of 
gold.  English  capitalists  afterwards  embarked  on  this  enterprise,  but 
the  developement  of  the  Mysore  goldfields  took  place  slowly.  In  1889 
their  output  of  gold  only  amounted  to  4^3  million  rupees.  The  in- 
creasing price  of  gold  expressed  in  the  silver  coins  of  India  gave  a 
great  impulse  to  gold-mining.  In  1894  the  Mysore  out-turn  of  gold 
had  risen  to  14'^  million  rupees.  It  is  still  advancing,  and  Mysore 
has  taken  a  definite  place  among  the  goldfields  of  the  world.      We 


20  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

shall  say  nothing  more  of  the  cruel  means  by  which  the  metal  is  ob- 
tained and  the  wicked  mint  laws  which  have  so  enhanced  its  value 
and  depressed  the  value  of  silver  that  the  native  is  deprived  of  every 
means  but  death  to  escape  the  terrible  effects  of  a  drought.'^ 

Of  the  seven  other  provinces  and  native  States  reported  upon, 
Madras  heads  the  list  with  a  yearly  production  valued  at  Rs.  50,000. 
The  Punjab  comes  next  with  an  annual  yield  of  Rs.  22,000.  Cashmir 
and  the  Nizam's  dominions  also  find  a  place.  But  the  total  yield  of 
all  India,  with  the  exception  of  Mysore,  only  amounted  in  1894  to 
Rs.  86,352.  In  1897  the  East  Indian  output  is  given  as  389,779  oz.  ; 
1898,  417,124  oz.;  1899,  447,971  oz. ;  while  for  1900,  it  is  estimated 
at  500,000  oz.  ;  equal  in  value  to  about  ten  million  dollars.  The  na- 
tive methods,  still  followed  everywhere  except  in  Mysore,  have  come 
to  the  end  of  their  capabilities.  Gold  washing  in  the  Indian  river-beds 
has  gone  on  for  ages;  therefore  no  surface  finds  of  any  importance 
can  now  be  hoped  for.  Indeed,  gold  washing  is  in  Indian  districts 
the  last  resource  of  the  poor  and  thriftless  classes,  or  an  occasional 
industry  adopted  by  the  peasant  during  some  few  days  of  his  agricul- 
tural year.  Yet  the  same  geological  indications  which  attracted  mining 
with  modern  machinery  to  Mysore  are  not  wanting  in  the  Central 
Plateau  and  the  broken  country  amid  which  that  plateau  slopes  down 
to  the  Gangetic  valley. 

'^  No  words  are  needed  to  emphasize  the  hardship  on  the  natives  of  India,  to  which 
Mr.  Donald  Graham  alluded  in  his  recent  speech  to  the  Manchester  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce. This  is  the  hardship  of  being  unable,  owing  to  the  mints  being  closed,  to  sell 
their  silver  ornaments  at  full  value,  as  formerly.  These  ornaments,  made  chiefly  from 
melted  rupees,  constitute  their  hoards,  or  savings,  to  be  used  in  time  of  stress;  and 
apart  from  any  political  danger  which  may  be  involved,  it  is  grievous  in  the  extreme 
that  in  their  present  direful  plight,  with  this  appalling  famine — the  7vorst  of  the  cent- 
ury— raging,  they  should,  owing  to  the  closed  mints,  have  such  a  loss  forced  upon 
them.  Mr.  Vicary  Gibbs,  M.P,,  in  a  letter  to  The  Times,  estimates  that  in  up-country 
districts  this  loss  will  be  60  per  cent.  We  have  heard  former  members  of  the  I.  C.  S. 
put  the  loss  at  possibly  75  per  cent.,  and  there  seems  some  grounds  for  this  calcula- 
tion in  the  fact  that  in  the  Orissa  famine,  while  ornaments  of  silver  (the  mints  being 
open  to  that  metal)  realized  full  value,  gold  ornaments  (there  being  no  gold  mints)  in 
up-country  districts  realized  only  one-quarter  of  their  value.  The  loss  now  entailed 
upon  the  natives  is  all  the  more  grievous  seeing  that,  as  is  admitted,  the  famine  is  not 
because  of  an  insufiSciency  of  food  to  feed  the  people — food-stuffs  being  practically 
unaltered  in  price — but  because  of  an  insufficiency  of  money. — London  Bi-Metallist, 
April,  1900. 


CHAPTER   II. 

CAUCASIA,    COLCHIS    AND    I'UNTUS. 

The  Argonautic  expedition — I'robable  origin  of  the  ston- — The  Veneti  of  Colchis 
and  Pontus — Their  proticiency  in  mining — Mines  of  the  Caucasus,  Olgassys  and  Tau- 
rus ranges — Exhaustion  of  the  placers — Discovery  of  iron — Iron  mines  of  Chalybia  — 
Opening  of  the  quartz  mines — Gold,  copper,  silver,  mercur)* — Mines  of  Georgia — 
Caves  inhabited  by  the  miners — Gold  mines  of  Trebizond — Their  importance — Elec- 
trum  mines — Mines  of  Tamasus — Balgar-Dagh — The  future  of  Colchis  and  I'ontus  as 
mining  regions. 

THK  Argonautic  expedition  is  evidently  a  Pontine  story  adapted 
and  perverted  by  the  Greek  ])riests  and  poets.  According  to 
one  version  of  the  story,  as  we  have  it,  Argos,  the  son  of  Danaus, 
built  the  ship  Argos,  in  which  Jason  or  Jasius  and  his  companions 
sailed  from  Thessaly  to  obtain  the  golden  fleece,  which  hung  from  a 
tree  in  Colchis.  Other  versions  make  Argos  the  son  of  Jupiter,  the 
son  of  Agenor,  the  son  of  Phryxus.  etc.  After  landing  in  various 
places,  among  them  Salmyd-Essus,  Jason  reaches  the  river  Phasis  in 
Colchis,  where,  having  been  charmed  by  Medea  against  fire  and  steel, 
he  seizes  the  golden  fleece  and  escapes  to  the  river  Eritlanus  and 
eventually  to  Italy,  where  he  consecrates  the  fleece  to  Neptune.  Da- 
naus, Jason,  Agenor,  Eridanus  and  other  of  these  names  are  Pon- 
tine or  Venetian,  not  Greek.  They  belong  to  the  Venetians  of  the 
Pontus,  who  were  sailors,  fishermen  and  miners,  and  in  whose  coun- 
try, to  the  present  day,  the  gold  of  the  Phasis  and  other  rivers,  flow- 
ing from  the  mountains  of  Caucasus,  is  saved  by  means  of  sheeps* 
fleeces  in  their  sluice-boxes,  just  as  we  of  the  West  now  use  woollen 
blankets  for  the  like  purpose.  Steel  was  unknown  to  the  Greeks  of 
the  period  assigned  to  this  story,  namely.  79  years  before  the  taking 
of  Troy.  After  les  the  Sun-god  and  Dion-Issus,  his  representative, 
the  favourite  deity  of  the  Veneti.  who  were  a  sea-faring  people,  was 
Poseidon,  or  Neptune,  and  in  their  mythology  this  god  appears  to 


22  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

have  played  a  prominent  part.'  The  story  of  the  Argonauts  seems 
more  likely  to  have  been  originally  connected  with  a  mine-hunting 
expedition  of  the  Veneti  to  Greece  and  Italy  and  thus  to  have  been 
turned  around  and  embellished  with  the  romantic  incidents  in  which 
Hellenic  fancy  has  seen  fit  to  clothe  it. 

The  Venetoi,  Benetoi,or  Henetoi,  are  mentioned  under  one  or  other 
of  these  names  by  Homer,  Hecatasus,  Sophocles,  and  other  very  an- 
cient authors,  as  occupants  of  the  coasts  of  the  Euxine,  in  Colchis, 
Pontus  and  Paphlagonia,  from  whence  they  are  said  to  have  been 
driven  by  the  Assyrians  (Assuroi)  before  the  period  ascribed  to  the 
Trojan  war,  a  contest  in  which  the  Veneti  are  said  to  have  taken  part. 

The  Veneti  were  located  by  the  Greek  authors  in  Paphlagonia  (now 
Kasta-Muni)  also  in  Pontus  on  the  river  Am-Issus,  at  Cerasus  (now 
Kerosoun)  and  at  Trap-esus,  now  Trebizond:  indeed  they  seem  to 
have  occupied  the  entire  shores  of  the  Euxine,  from  the  Palus  Mse- 
otis,  by  Colchis  and  Pontus  to  Paphlagonia.  The  names  of  Cerasus, 
Trap-esus,  Hyssus,  Issonium,  Amisenus,  Amasia,  and  Am-Issus,  are 
too  significant,  and  they  too  closely  resemble  those  by  which  the 
Veneti  of  the  Baltic  designated  their  towns,  rivers,  and  capes  in  les- 
tia  or  Esthonia,  to  have  been  bestowed  by  any  but  a  Gothic  race. 
For  example,  Am-Issus  was  the  ancient  name  of  the  Dutch  Ems  and 
Tam-Issus  of  the  British  Thames.  Similar  place-name^,  as  Charisia, 
or  Chrisia,  Trapezeus,  Hypsus,  Issus,  Cyparissius,  Larissa,  Oxiae, 
Lissus,  and  Histria  mark  the  wanderings  of  the  Veneti  from  Arcadia 
to  the  modern  Venice. 

The  Veneti  of  the  Euxine  are  characterized  by  Homer.  They  were 
seamen,  miners,  traders  and  breeders  of  horses  and  mules.  Among 
their  possessions  were  the  rich  Alybean  silver  mines  (II.  ii,  1045). 
They  are  also  characterized  as  horse-breeders,  in  the  "  Hippolytus  " 
of  Euripides.  Cato  and  Strabo  mention  the  part  which  the  Heneti 
took  in  the  siege  of  Troy,  whilst  Cato,  Pliny  and  Cornelius  Xepos 
enable  us  to  trace  their  removal  from  Paphlagonia  to  the  Adriatic. 

'  "  The  prince  of  Mingrelia  (Colchis)  assumes  the  title  of  Dadian  (Dar-dion  ?)  or 
Master  of  the  Sea,  though  he  possesses  not  even  a  fishing-boat."  Mahe-Brun,  I,  304. 
At  Samos  during  the  sixth  century  B.  C.  the  king  threw  into  the  sea  a  golden  ring. 
(Herod.,  Thalia,  41.)  In  Venice  of  the  Adriatic,  the  doge  or  duke  annually  weds  the 
sea  by  casting  a  ring  into  its  waters.  This  custom  is  said  to  have  been  instituted  by 
the  Pope  of  Rome  in  A.D  11 77.  There  were  five  rival  popes  at  that  period,  viz.,  Al- 
exander, Victor,  Pascal,  Calixtus  and  Innocent.   The  custom  is  of  far  higher  antiquity. 

The  Veneti  transmitted  this  custom  to  the  Norsemen  who  conquered  Dublin  in  the 
8th  century  and  to-day  the  Lord  Mayor  of  that  city  keeps  it  alive  by  triennially  cast- 
ing into  the  sea  a  gilded  dart. 


CAUCASIA,    COLCHIS    AND    PONTUS.  2$ 

They  are  also  mentioned  as  of  Paphlagonia  by  Pomponius  Mela,  A.  D. 
50,  Arnan,  A.D.  90-170,  and  Soliniis,  A.D.  230. 

Upon  being  driven  out  of  Pontus,  and  after  many  adventures,  in 
which  perhaps  Egypt  was  not  neglected,  the  Veneti  made  their  way 
into  Greece,  and  afterwards  into  Italy,  Spain  and  Gaul,  and  as  Prof. 
Evans  suggests,  perhaps  also  Britain. 

Possessing  a  numerous  marine,  this  people  evidently  found  it  ad- 
visable, when  they  were  dislodged  from  Paphlagonia  and  elsewhere 
in  the  Levant,  to  steer  their  ships  close  to  the  Pontine  coast  and 
eventually  seek  a  refuge  in  Europe.  Some  unexplained  obstacle  in 
Bithynia,  perhaps  the  occupation  of  the  strait  by  the  Assyrians,  pre- 
vented the  Paphlagonian  Veneti  from  crossing  the  Bosphorus;  so 
probably  leaving  their  fleet  in  the  Euxine,  to  effect  a  junction  with 
them  after  they  crossed,  they  traversed  Mysia  and  approached  the 
Hellespont.  At  the  siege  of  Troy,  the  services  of  some  of  them  ap- 
pear to  have  been  engaged  by  the  Trojans,  for  it  is  recorded  that  they 
lost  their  king  Pylcemenes  in  that  celebrated  contest,  and  after  the 
fall  of  Illium  placed  themselves  under  the  leadership  of  Antenor, 
(brother  of  Jasus,  and  son  of  Triopas,)  who,  rejecting  the  proposed 
passage  of  the  Hellespont,  led  them  back  to  the  Bosphorus,  which 
they  could  only  have  crossed  after  defeating  the  enemy.  This  account 
differs  from  several  others  and  especially  from  that  of  Herodotus, 
which  makes  them  cross  the  Bosphorus  and  conquer  the  Thracians 
"before  the  Trojan  war,"  then  advance  westward,  probably  in  their 
shipping,  to  the  river  Peneus  in  Arcadia  and  Elis.  Arrian  says  that 
they  suffered  greatly  in  wars  with  the  Assuroi  (Assyrians)  and  having 
escaped  into  Europe  were  thereafter  known  as  Benetoi,  instead  of 
Henetoi,  without  alluding  to  any  participation  of  theirs  in  the  Tro- 
jan war.  Other  authors  engage  the  Veneti  at  Troy  before  the  main 
body  is  driven  out  of  Pontus. 

Reverting  to  the  Venetian  passage  of  the  Bosphorus,  Homer  alludes 
to  the  Veneti  as  the  Teuckroi  and  Musoi,  and  says  they  worshipped 
Dion-Issus.  Herodotus  alludes  to  one  of  their  tribes  calleil  the  Satrai, 
whom  he  says  were  never  subdued,  Strabo,  who  was  a  native  of  Pon- 
tus, says  the  Veneti  were  called  Leuco-Syrians  on  account  of  their 
fair  complexion.  After  the  removal  of  the  Veneti  from  Pontus,  this 
tribe  (the  Satrje)  inhabited  the  mountains  of  Thrace,  worshipped  Bac- 
chus (or  Dion-Issus)  and  maintained  priests  and  priestesses  called 
Bessi.  Bury,  11,  15,  calls  the  latter  the  Bessi,  or  Satri,  of  Rhodope. 
Ovid,  who  lived  in  exile  among  the  Getie  or  Goths  of  the  Danube, 

thus  alludes  to  the  Bessi: 

Viv.T  qu.Tm  miserum  est  inter  Bessosque  Getasque. 


24  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Both  Sophocles  and  Arrian  allude  to  the  Veneti  in  Thrace.  Homer, 
in  the  passage  above  cited,  also  in  the  opening  of  Book  XIII,  carries 
them  into  Moesia,  which,  it  is  well  known,  was  inhabited  by  Goths, 
down  to  the  Medieval  Ages.  Its  name  is  derived  from  that  of  their 
god  or  prophet,  Moess,  or  Bacchus.  These  references  extend  the 
Gothic  occupation  of  the  valley  of  the  Danube,  (Ister,)  to  a  period 
of  nearly  twenty  centuries,  over  the  whole  of  which  period  ecclesias- 
tical history  has  drawn  an  almost  impenetrable  veil. 

In  another  passage  Herodotus  carries  the  Veneti  from  Arcadia  to 
Illyria  and  there  leaves  them,  whilst  Livy  and  Strabo  take  them  at 
once  by  sea  from  the  Bosphorus  to  the  Adriatic,  which,  as  they  must 
in  fact  have  possessed  many  ships,  and  as  their  land-passage  through 
western  Greece  would  have  been  disputed  by  many  enemies,  seems 
more  probable.  However,  in  another  place  Herodotus  alludes  to  the 
"  Eneti  on  the  Adriatic  "  and  this  phrase  may  be  construed  to  mean 
not  only  the  Veneti  of  Illyria  but  those  also  of  the  lagoons  and  islands. 

Here  too  the  place-names  identify  them.  Polybius  in  his  first  and 
second  books  mentions  the  Illyrian  promontory  of  Lissa,  the  city  of 
Issa  and  the  Venetian  name  of  the  river  Po,  which  was  Eodencus  and 
at  a  later  period  Eridanus  after  the  Eridanus  in  Pontus.  Odin,  Bo- 
den,  or  Woden,  the  Gothic  name  for  their  god  Dion-Issus,  is  still 
commemorated  in  our  Wednesday.  There  was  a  town  named  Bodin- 
comagus,  on  the  same  river,  not  far  from  the  modern  Turin.  One  of 
the  Illyrian  provinces  was  called  and  is  still  called  Istria:  the  name 
of  the  Illyrian  queen  was  Teuta,  also  a  Gothic  name.  In  describing 
the  opposite  shore  of  Italy  Polybius  says :  ' '  Below  all  these  and  near- 
est to  the  Adriatic  were  the  Venetians,  a  very  ancient  people,  whose 
dress  and  manners  greatly  resembled  those  of  the  Gauls,  though  they 
used  a  different  language.  This  is  that  nation  of  whom  the  tragic 
poets  have  recorded  so  many  monstrous  fables."  The  Illyrians  and 
Venetians,  who  appear  to  have  been  one  people,  were  noted  for  their 
fondness  for  the  sea,  prominence  in  mining,  love  of  plunder,  addic- 
tion to  piracy  and  trade,  skillfulness  as  mariners  and  the  strength  of 
their  marine.  Their  avoidance  of  the  use  of  gold  money  at  an  sera 
when  in  hierarchical  states  gold,  as  shown  in  my  "  History  of  Mone- 
tary Systems,"  was  regarded  a  sacred  metal  and  was  systematically 
doubled  in  value  by  the  coinage  laws  of  the  sovereign-pontiffs,  is  very 
remarkable. 

The  decline  of  the  Venetians  of  Illyria  is  to.  be  dated  from  A.  U. 
524,  when,  instigated  by  the  infirm  but  zealous  pontiff  L.  C.  Metellus, 
the  Romans  and  allies,  with  an  immense  fleet  of  two  hundred  ships. 


CAUCASIA,     COLCHIS    AND     rONTUS.  25 

defeated  Queen  Teuta,  occupied  Corfu,  destroyed  the  Dion-issian 
shrines,  made  great  slaughter  of  the  Venetians,  ahnost  depopulated 
Illyria  and  Istria,  compelled  the  survivors  to  submit  to  the  payment 
of  tribute  and  ordered  that  thenceforth  they  should  "never  sail  be- 
yond Lissa  with  more  than  two  galleys  and  those  unarmed."'' 

Among  the  many  strange  coincidences  which  occur  in  comparing 
the  circumstances  of  the  X'eneti  of  the  Kuxine  and  the  Veneti  of  the 
Baltic,  none  is  more  striking  than  their  j^ersecution  by  the  hierarchies, 
first  of  Assyria,  and  afterwards  of  Cireece  and  Rome.  In  this  gener- 
alization we  may  perhaps  include  the  Egyptian  hatred  of  the  Hyksos. 
By  which  of  the  sovereigns  of  Assyria  the  ^'eneti  of  the  Euxine  were 
attacked,  is  uncertain,  though  probability  points  to  Tiglath-pil-esar. 
It  is,  however,  well  known  that  in  a  later  age  Pope  Metellus,  as  above 
related,  destroyed  the  Veneti  of  Illyria,  that  Julius  Caisar  drove  the 
Veneti  of  Brittany  from  the  Loire,  and  that  Charlemagne  and  his  suc- 
cessors, of  the  Latin  empire,  exterminated  the  \'cneti  of  the  Baltic. 

This  coincidence  does  not  merely  consist  in  the  fact  that  the  Veneti 
were  attacked  without  provocation  and  pursued  with  vindictiveness, 
but  in  the  circumstance  that  their  assailants  in  every  case  were  the 
lords  of  hierarchies,  especially  embittered  against  the  Dion-issian  wor- 
ship, and  that  in  each  case  the  suppression  of  the  Dion-issians  was 
followed  by  the  establishment  or  revival  of  gold-mining. 

Modern  archaeological  researches  have  brought  to  light  many  in- 
teresting memorials  of  Assyria  and  Chaldea,  nationaliies  which,  at 
one  time  or  another,  controlled  the  countries  embraced  in  this  chap- 
ter. But  I  am  far  from  being  convinced  that  the  remote  dates  attrib- 
uted to  these  remains  have  any  nearer  relation  to  fact  than  is  to  be 
discerned  by  the  misleading  lights  of  astrology.  Baked  clay  tablets 
have  been  found  in  a  mound  of  Mesopotamia  containing,  in  cuneiform 
characters,  accounts  of  the  transactions  of  a  merchant,  many  of  which 
are  said  to  be  couched  in  silver  shekels  and  ring-money  and  some  in 
gold  dust.  If  the  readings  and  translations  are  to  be  depended  upon, 
the  use  of  silver  for  money,  unless  the  reasons  set  forth  in  a  previous 
chapter  herein  are  quite  overthrown,  must  challenge  the  antiquity 
sought  to  be  attached  to  these  finds.  It  is  certainly  rather  remark- 
able that  whilst  the  archneological  department  of  the  British  Museum 
is  asking  us  to  believe  in  the  use  of  silver  money  in  Chaldea  over  six 
thousand  years  before  the  Christian  xrti,  the  coin  department  of  the 

*  A  similar  policy  was  pursued  by  the  Japanese  in  the  17th  centurj',  who.  to  prevent 
Europeans  from  repeating  their  attempt  to  forcibly  evangelize  their  empire,  restricted 
them  to  two  unarmed  ships  a  year  and  these  to  the  island  of  I»eshima. 


26  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRFXIOUS    METALS. 

same  institution  continues  to  insist  that  money  was  invented  by  the 
Lydians  more  than  five  thousand  years  later.'  One  department  as- 
serts that  inscribed  coins  are  not  older  than  the  sixth  century  before 
our  sera,  whilst  the  other  is  able  to  read  a  cuneiform  script  which  it 
assumes  remained  unaltered  for  upwards  of  sixty  centuries.  (Cf. 
''Coins  and  Medals  "  by  S.  Lane-Poole,  p.  38.)  From  which  it  would 
follow  that  inscriptions  were  made  upon  bricks  during  the  immense 
period  of  time  represented  by  fifty-four  centuries,  before  the  idea  oc- 
curred of  making  similar  inscriptions  upon  coins'  Such  theories  seem 
hardly  less  monstrous  than  those  complained  of  by  Strabo,  some 
eighteen  centuries  ago.  The  truth  appears  to  be  that  coins  are  much 
older  and  the  Chaldean  ruins  much  more  recent  than  the  dates  as- 
signed to  them  respectively  by  these  inharmonious  savants. 

The  mines  of  Colchis  and  Pontus  were  numerous  and  some  of  them 
important.  Nearly  every  stream  that  descended  from  the  Caucasus, 
Olgassys  and  Taurus  mountains  brought  down  its  contribution  of 
gold.*  These  resources  were,  however,  probably  exhausted  by  the 
aborigines  before  the  arrival  of  the  Veneti.  The  latter,  caring  noth- 
ing for  gold,  turned  their  attention  to  the  production  of  iron,  a  knowl- 
edge of  which  they  had  either  brought,  or  acquired,  from  Greater 
Asia.  The  iron  ore  was  obtained  in  the  range  which  extends  from 
Tocat  in  Chalybia  towards  the  province  of  Trebizond  where  the  moun- 
tains separate  the  basin  of  the  Euxine  from  that  of  the  Euphrates, 
There  were  also  other  deposites,  both  of  iron,  copper,  and  electrum 
nearer  to  the  city  of  Trebizond,  in  the  districts  known  as  Koureh  and 
Gumish-Khana.  From  these  Chalybian  mines  we  retain  the  name  of 
chalybeate,  which  is  still  given  to  waters  containing  iron. 

When  the  iron  industry  had  advanced  sufficiently  to  enable  the  Ve- 
neti to  supply  the  Assyrians  with  steel  weapons  and  tools,  the  latter, 
driving  away  and  supplanting  their  benefactors,  prospected  and  opened 
the  quartz  mines  of  the  vicinity  and  from  them  extracted  for  them- 
selves their  gold,  copper,  silver  and  mercury,  the  latter  from  Mount 
Olgassys,  or  Olgasus,  in  Paphlagonia. 

The  ores  were  reduced  at  the  Sandaraca  Works  in  Pimolis  on  the 
river  Halys.  Says  Strabo  (xii,  iii,  40):  "The  Sandaracurgium  is  a 
mountain  hollowed  out  by  vast  excavations  made  by  the  miners.  The 
mining  work  is  always  carried  on  at  the  public  charge,"  because,  as 

^  Cuneiform  Texts  from  Babylonian  Tablets  in  the  British  Museum.  London,  1897; 
printed  by  order  of  the  Trustees. 

^Strabo,  xi,  passim:  Pliny,  xxxiii,  3:  Plut.,  in  Pompey:  Appian,  de  Bello  Mith. 
Procop.  Bell.  Persic,,  besides  numerous  modern  authorities  cited  by  Malte-Brun. 


CAUCASIA,     COLi;H1S    and     I'ONTLS.  27 

he  explains  further  on,  it  did  not  pay,  "and  the  slaves  are  convicts. 
Beside  the  severity  of  the  labour,  the  atmosphere  of  tlie  mines  is  filled 
with  poisonous  odours,  which  commonly  prove  fatal  to  the  workmen. 
The  works  are  frequently  suspended  from  the  difficulty  of  obtaining 
labourers  whose  full  number  is  two  hundred,  which  is  being  contin- 
ually diminished  by  disease  and  accident." 

These  mining  operations  which  originated  with  the  Veneti  were  af- 
terwards extended  by  tht.:m  to  the  Caucasus  range,  and  eventually 
embraced  the  entire  country  from  Georgia  to  Paphlagonia.  Malte- 
Brun  mentions  gold,  silver  or  copper  mines  in  Georgia,  Imeritia,  Min- 
grelia  (Colchis),  Abassia,  Kabardia,  the  country  of  the  Kubashes, 
(who  claim  to  be  descended  from  the  Venetians,  or  as  they  term  them, 
"  Franks,")  and  also  various  other  parts  of  Colchisand  Pontus.  Both 
Strabo  and  Pallas  state  that  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Caucasian  mines 
there  are  numerous  caves  hollowed  out  of  the  solid  rock  in  which  the 
miners  dwelt,  and  which  still  contain  vestiges  of  their  former  inhab- 
itants. Similar  caves  are  to  be  seen  on  the  eastern  coasts  of  Egypt, 
in  Mauretania  (Strabo,  xvii,  iii,  7),  in  that  part  of  Spain  which  was 
inhabited  by  the  Goths  and  on  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia  (the  Ovens) 
explored  by  the  Norsemen  (Veneti)  of  the  eleventh  century.  Hamil- 
ton (1842)  says  that  in  the  reign  of  Justinian  the  gold  mines  of  Tre- 
bizond  were  so  important  as  to  become  a  subject  of  dispute  between 
that  monarch  and  Chosroes  I.  He  gives  a  long  account  of  the  elec- 
trum  mines  at  Gumish-Khana  (Gumusthane)  which  produced  annu- 
ally 250  to  300  dr.  of  gold  without  mentioning  the  silver  which  they 
likewise  yielded.  The  mines  of  Balgar  Dagh,  on  the  slopes  of  the 
Taurus  are  said  to  be  exceedingly  rich,  yielding  ^8  ($40)  gold  and 
;^5  ($-5)  silver  per  ton,  besides  a  large  proportion  of  lead.  The  British 
Consul  Wrench  (iSSo)  grows  cjuite  enthusiastic  over  the  mines  of  Pon- 
tus and  predicts  that  whenever  the  Turkish  government  establishes 
laws  that  will  define  and  protect  the  miner's  rights  and  effectually 
shield  him  from  official  exactions,  this  country  will  regain  a  consid- 
erable proportion  of  the  eminence  it  once  enjoyed  as  a  productive 
mining  region. 


28 


CHAPTER  III. 


Greek  perversion  of  Persian  literature — The  Persian  dynasty  of  Geimschid — Re- 
puted treasure  of  Susa — Spoil  taken  at  Plattea — Antiquity  of  the  Persian  daric — £  s.  d. 
System — Scythian  invasion  and' pillage  of  Persia — Silver  of  Laristan — Gold  of  Irak — 
Persian  mines  in  the  time  of  Trajan — Unimportance  of  Persia  as  a  mining  country. 

THE  Greek  writers  have  so  thoroughly  obliterated  the  early  his- 
tory of  Persia  that  but  little  remains  of  it  at  the  present  time; 
and  even  that  little  is  difificult  to  distinguish  from  fable.  Dr.  Hyde 
mentions  an  early  dynasty  whose  most  notable  figure  was  Geimshid, 
the  reputed  discoverer  of  an  intercalary  cycle  of  120  years,  which  is 
still  in  use.  The  sera  of  Geimshid  is  assigned  in  another  work  *  to  the 
year  B.C.  703,  but  it  is  much  to  be  feared  that  Geimshid  is  a  Persian 
myth  built  upon  the  Hindu  myth  of  Buddha.  Between  his  £era  and 
that  of  Cyrus  the  Elder,  the  history  of  Persia  is  a  blank. 

In  the  time  of  Cleomenes,  king  of  Sparta,  491  B.C.,  the  barbarians 
of  Asia,  this  includes  the  Persians,  are  represented  as  being  exceed- 
ingly rich  in  gold  and  silver,  the  Lydians  with  "a  profusion  of  sil- 
ver," and  the  Persians  with  so  vast  a  hoard  in  Susa  as  made  them  vie 
in  affluence  with  Jupiter  himself.  At  the  same  time  the  Arcadians 
and  Argives  were  "destitute  of  the  precious  metals."  '  Susa  is  situ- 
ated on  the  river  Kerkah  (anciently  the  Choaspes)  in  the  province  of 
Kurzistan,  Persia.  This  stream  was  once  called  the  Golden  Water 
and  the  kings  of  Persia  drank  of  this  water  only;  for  which  purpose 
it  was  bottled  up  and  carried  with  them  on  their  journeys.  The  origin 
of  the  custom  was  probably  the  fact  that  the  Choaspes  was  an  aurif- 
erous stream,  from  which  it  was  deemed  desirable,  by  means  of  royal 
appropriation,  to  warn  off  all  intruders.  Similar  customs  are  recorded 
of  other  auriferous  countries.^ 

At  the  battle  of  Platsea  (B.C.  479)  an  enormous  spoil  was  gathered 
by  the  Greeks  from  the  camp  and  persons  of  the  vanquished  Persians, 

'  Del  Mar's  "Worship  of  Augustus  Cresar."       •  Herodotus  in  Terpsichore,  49. 
^  Consult  Herodotus  in  Clio,  188,  and  the  authorities  in  Beloe's  notes. 


PERSIA. 


29 


including  "scimitars  of  gold,"  presumably  scimitars  with  gold  hilts 
or  scabbards.  The  .-t^gintae  purchased  some  of  this  spoil  "at  the 
price  of  brass"  from  the  dreek  slaves,  or  helots,  (who  had  stolen 
and  secreted  it.)  * 

Although  Mionnet  is  of  opinion  that  the  darics  of  Persia  are  the 
oldest  coins  (familiar  to  the  Western  World)  which  are  still  e.\tant,we 
know  but  little  of  the  sources  whence  the  metal  was  obtained  of  which 
these  coins  of  Persia  were  composed.  If  it  be  answered  that  the  source 
was  plunder,  we  know  of  no  nations  rich  enough  in  the  precious  metals 
and  within  reach  of  her  armies  which  could  have  supplied  Persia  with 
the  materials  of  coinage  at  so  early  a  period.  Egypt  was  not  plun- 
dered by  Cambyses  until  B.  C.  526,  nor  India  by  Darius  until  B.  C. 
521 ;  while  the  darics,  according  to  Mionnet  and  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures, are  of  an  earlier  date  than  either  of  these  expeditions.  These 
coins,  whose  name  was  possibly  derived  from  the  zodiacal  sign  of  the 
Archer  (Indian,  i/anai/s)  with  which  they  were  stamped,  or  else  from 
the  Indian  gold  coin  dharana,  contained  129.275  English  grains  of 
fine  gold,  something  heavier  than  a  modern  English  sovereign,  or 
American  half-eagle.  Each  daric  went  for  20  silver  shekels,  of  83.96 
grains  of  fine  silver:  and  each  shekel  for  12  bronze  or  copper  coins. 
The  ratio  of  silver  to  gold  was  13  for  i.  Thus,  the  oldest  monetary 
system,  of  which  any  succinct  account  is  now  deducible,  was  almost 
precisely  the  same  as  the^  s.  d.  system  of  England  at  the  present 
day,  barring  the  gratuitous  and  unrestricted  coinage  and  the  adjuncts 
of  paper  notes,  employed  in  the  latter.  Substitute  darics,  shekels  and 
cashbequis,  or  kasbequis.  for  pounds,  shillings  and  pence — and  the 
resemblance  is  almost  complete.  Assuming  Mionnet's  antiquity  of  th6 
daric  to  be  well  founded,  the  source  of  the  gold  of  which  they  were 
made — for  they  were  very  numerous — must  be  left  to  conjecture. 

About  B.  C.  633  Persia  was  overrun  by  the  Scythians;  and  when 
these  fierce  marauders  evacuated  the  country,  some  quarter  of  a  cent- 
urj'  later,  they  i)robably  left  but  little  gold  behind  them.  However, 
it  is  not  improbable  that  this  raid  imparted  to  the  Persians  that  knowl- 
edge of  the  auriferous  wealth  of  Scythia  of  which  they  made  such 
ample  use  in  their  subsequent  expeditions  into  that  country  under 
Darius  Hystaspes,  and  that  meanwhile  they  inaugurated  the  system 
of  mining  of  which  Onesicritus  observed  the  indications.  Said  that 
writer,  who  was  of  the  fourth  century  before  our  rera:  '*  .\  river  ia 
Carmania  t rings  down  gold-dust;  there  are  mines  of  silver,  copper 
and  miniui.j  and  there  are  two  mountains,  one  of  which  contains  ar- 

*  HerodoU  s  in  Calliope,  So. 


30  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

seme,  the  other  salt. '  The  silver  mines  here  mentioned  probably  com- 
prised those  of  Laristan.  Auriferous  quartz  deposits  were  also  found 
near  Zinjan  in  Irak,  but  nothing  is  known  of  their  history  or  explora- 
tion, except  that  a  Berlin  engineer,  who  visited  them  in  A.D.  1877, 
could  find  no  pay  ore.  (Lock,  p.  ^66.)  The  rivalry  between  the  Per- 
sians and  Greeks  for  the  trade  of  the  Orient  is  an  almost  unmistake- 
able  indication  that  the  former  possessed  some  permanent  and  reliable 
source  of  the  precious  metals,  especially  of  silver,  without  which  such 
rivalry  would  have  been  commercially  ineffectual.  The  silver  mines 
of  Laristan  were  hardly  of  sufficient  importance  to  supply  this  want ;  ^ 
and  it  must  therefore  be  supposed  that  the  Persians  were  more  com- 
pletely and  for  a  longer  time  in  control  of  the  argentiferous  parts  of 
Greece,  both  in  Asia  and  Europe,  than  their  classical  rivals  have 
chosen  to  admit.  This  silver,  when  exchanged  for  Oriental  gold,  may 
explain  the  source  of  the  most  ancient  Persian  darics.''  The  treasures 
of  Persepolis  and  Pasagarda  were  of  a  later  date. 

In  the  reign  of  Trajan,  a  Roman  slave,  one  Callidromus,  who  had 
been  sent  as  a  present  to  Pacorus,  King  of  Parthia,  was  by  him  con- 
signed for  punishment  to  the  mines,  whence  he  afterwards  escaped 
to  Nicomediaand  took  refuge  in  a  sanctuary  dedicated  and  sacred  to 
the  Roman  Emperor.  Upon  being  interrogated  by  Pliny  the  Younger, 
who  was  then  pro-pr^etor  in  Pontus,  Callidromus  drew  forth  a  "  small 
ingot  of  Parthian  gold  which  he  said  he  brought  from  thence,  out  of 
the  mines.  I  have  affixed  my  stamp  to  it,  (wrote  Pliny,)  the  design 
being  a  chariot  drawn  by  four  horses."  During  a  previous  pro-con- 
sulship (that  of  Velius  Paullus),  Flavins  Archippus,  a  "  philosopher," 
had  been  unjustly  "condemned  to  the  mines  for  forgery."  He  was 
pardoned  and  restored  to  his  possessions  by  Trajan.**  The  location 
of  the  Pontine  mines  to  which  the  philosopher  was  consigned  is  of 
no  consequence,  but  it  would  have  been  interesting  to  learn  that  of 
the  diggings  whence  Callidromus  obtained  the  ingot  which  Pliny  lor- 

^  Minium  was,  strictly  speaking,  a  protoxide  or  peroxide  of  lead,  but  as  the  colour 
was  that  of  cinnabar,  the  ore  of  mercury,  it  is  quite  likely  that  minium  here  meant  the 
mercury  used  in  catching  the  gold  of  the  Carmanian  streams.  Onesicritus  is  quoted  in 
Strabo,  xv,  ii,  14. 

*  From  the  silver  of  Laristan  were  made  loops  or  bangs  of  silver-wire,  stamped  with 
a  monetary  mark.  They  were  called  larins,  and  were  each  of  about  72  grains,  or  much 
the  same  weight  as  a  French  franc. 

'  Adarkonim,  the  Hebrew  plural  for  darics,  are  mentioned  in  I  Ch.on.,  xxix,  7; 
Ezra,  II,  69  and  viii,  27  and  Neh.,  viii,  70-72.  In  the  English  version  t.iey  are  trans- 
lated "drams,"  a  palpable  corruption.  ' 

^  Pliny's  Letters,  x,  xxvi,  and  Ixvi.  ; 


PERi.IA.  31 

warded  to  Trajan.   There  is  noticing,  however,  upon  which  to  rest  a 
conjecture. 

Neither  the  ancient  Parthia  nor  the  modern  Persia  are  known  to 
have  possessed  any  extensive  gold  or  silver  mines,  though  the  vast 
spoil  in  the  precious  metals  captured  by  Ale.xander  at  Persepolis  (Ish- 
takar)  has  led  to  a  contrary  inference. 


32 


CHAPTER  IV. 


The  Nile  in  ancient  tin\es — Its  fall  was  greater  than  now,  while  its  banks  were 
wooded — These  physical  changes  probably  due  to  gold-mining — Oriental  origin  of  the 
Egyptians — Social  changes — Many  of  these  due  to  gold-mining — Vast  extent  of  the 
mining  regions — Outlying  districts — The  great  central  or  Bisharee  region — Antiquity 
and  wealth  of  these  mines — Treasury  of  Rhampsinitus — Plunder  of  Cambyses — Tribute 
of  Darius — The  mines  as  described  by  Agatharchides  and  Diodorus — Worked  by  the 
Arabs — Explored  by  the  moderns — Their  exhaustion — Devastated  aspect  of  the  sur- 
rounding country. 

IT  may,  perhaps,  appear  surprising  that  the  Nile,  which,  from  time 
immemorial,  has  been  regarded  chiefly  as  a  great  agricultural 
stream,  should  be  classed  among  mining  rivers;  yet  there  is  ample 
warrant  for  so  doing.  Not  only  this;  but  its  history  as  a  mining  river  ap- 
pears to  be  more  ancient,  and — considering  the  geographical  changes 
it  has  brought  about — it  is  certainly  more  important  than  as  an  agri- 
cultural one. 

In  the  remotest  historical  period  the  Nile,  though  never  a  rapid 
stream  below  the  junction  of  the  Blue  River,  had,  undoubtedly  a 
greater  fall  than  at  present.  The  country-rock,  which  appears  at  nu- 
merous places  along  its  bed,  did  not  form,  as  now,  merely  rapids, 
but  cataracts.  This  their  ancient  names  attest.  The  hills  of  Sennaar 
and  Nubia,  which  now  are  destitute  of  timber  and  water,  were  once 
wooded;  and  from  their  flanks  flowed  numerous  feeders,  which,  after 
enriching  the  soil,  added  their  floods  to  the  Nile.  These  feeders  now 
flow  underground,  through  the  mining  debris  which  underlies  the  sand 
of  the  plains. 

The  Bisharee  or  gold  country  was  once  cultivated,  and  populous. 
Much  of  it  is  now,  and  has  been  since  the  time  of  Cambyses,  a  desert 
of  sand  and  gravel.  The  Nile,  which  now  washes  the  Arabian  side 
of  the  valley,  formerly  skirted  the  Libyan  side.  From  lat.  27  40  N. 
to  the  sea,  a  portion  of  Egypt  was  at  one  time  a  morass.  It  was  like 
the  delta  of  the  Po,  and  covered  with  trees.  This  was  probably  during 
the  first  Jera  of  mining,  and  before  the  river  was  diked  by  Menes.  It 
is  now  all  dry  land  and  treeless,  although  its  delta  is  now  far  to  the 


EOVPT.  ii 

northwvird.  The  Nile  once  emptied  into  the  sea  a  little  below  where 
Cairo  now  stands.  Nor  need  this  period  have  been  very  remote.  At 
the  present  trnn?  the  river  runs  ninety  miles  farther  through  a  Delta 
whose  vast  dimensions  probably  owe  some  part  of  their  foundation 
to  the  operations  of  the  multitudes  who  for  generations  were  em- 
ployed in  washing,  the  sands  of  the  Bisharee  region  for  gold. 

After  the  a^ra  of  mining  which  had  bestrewn  the  plains  of  Lombardy 
with  sand  and  gravel  from  the  mining  regions  of  Piedmont,  the  an- 
nual floods  of  the  Po  were  able  to  cover  the  mining  deposits  with 
layers  of  loam,  which,  in  the  course  of  ages,  became  sufficiently  deep 
to  restore  the  ancient  agricultural  character  of  the  country.  Not  so 
with  the  Nile,  which,  from  Fazogle,  in  lat.  12  N.,  to  the  Delta,  had 
scarcely  enough  fall  for  this  purpose.  Consequently,  the  ruin  brought 
upon  Nul)ia  was  irreparable;  and  its  inhabitaats  were  driven  forsup- 
port  to  the  narrow  valley  of  the  Nile  proper,  where  agriculture  had 
to  be  conducted  under  conditions  that  led  to  the  permanent  enslave- 
ment of  the  people  and  to  those  extraordinary  systems  of  government 
and  religion  which  have  exercised  such  a  potent  influence  upon  the 
destiny  of  the  world.  Ne.xt  to  the  comprehensive  study  of  these  sys- 
tems, nothing  so  well  marks  the  uncertain  nature  of  Egyptian  agri- 
culture, and  the  abject  and  defenceless  character  of  the  people  who 
had  to  depend  upon  it  for  support,  than  the  frequency  of  their  sub- 
jection to  foreign  conquerors,  and  the  number  of  alien  dynasties  to 
which  Egypt  has  been  compelled  to  submit.  This  furnishes  a  curious 
and  instructive  contrast  with  China,  which  during  forty  centuries  has 
not  changed  the  nationality  of  its  dynasties  half-a-dozen  times. 

After  the  devastation  and  physical  ruin  of  the  Pisharee  region,  and 
before  the  Egyptian  Delta  assumed  its  present  vast  proportions, 
the  only  considerable  agricultural  surfaces  in  Egypt  were  in  the  Fork, 
anciently  called  the  Island  of  Meroe,  and  in  the  plains  below  the  foot- 
hills of  Nubia.  The  edifices  and  works  of  art  discovered  in  Meroe, 
and  elsewhere  in  Nubia  and  Upper  Egypt,  appear  to  have  preceded 
thos  ^  which  have  been  found  in  the  lower  country. 

The  Eg>-ptians  and  Nubians  are  regariled  as  of  Indian  origin  ;  their 
physical  apjiearance,  their  comple.xion,  their  pyramids  and  earliest 
edifices,  their  ecclesiastical  and  political  institutions  and  the  habitat 
of  some  of  the  plants  and  many  of  the  articles  of  commerce  found  in 
their  toml)s,  all  point  to  this  conclusion. 

The  term  Nubia  appears  to  have  originated  in  Egypt,  where  Nob 
or  Nub  signifies  gold,  hence  Nubia,  the  Land  of  Ciold.  The  ancient 
inhabitants  were  called  by  the  Greeks,  Nobatie.   Malte-Brun  regards 


34  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Nubia  as  the  Ethiopia  supra  Egyptum  of  the  ancients.  It  embraces 
the  foot-hills  of  the  mountainous  ranges  that  constitute  a  great  part 
of  Abyssinia;  whilst  Egypt  is  a  country  of  low  plains  bestrewn  with 
sand.  The  three  distinguishing  characteristics  of  all  great  gold-min- 
ing countries  are  here  apparent:  the  sierras,  Abyssinia;  the  foot-hills, 
Nubia;  the  plains,  Egypt;  the  connecting  link  between  them  all,  the 
Nile.  Analogous  geographical  surroundings  characterize  those  other 
great  mining  rivers,  the  Po,  the  Rhone,  the  Rhine,  and  the  Sacra- 
mento. Like  Italy  and  California,  Nubia  has  also  its  coast  range. 
These  mountains  separate  the  Bisharee  country  from  the  Red  Sea, 
and  rise  to  an  altitude  of  6000  feet.  Bish-marmak  means  five  fingers; 
so  does  Penta-dactylos,  the  mining  region  of  the  Ptolemies. 

Below  the  foot-hills  of  Nubia  is  a  vast  expanse  of  sand  and  gravel, 
known  as  the  Bisharee,  or  Great  Nubian  Desert,  This,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  was  once  the  centre  of  the  greatest  gold-mining  works 
known  to  the  ancient  world.  According  to  Diodorus,  Book  iv,  the 
Pharaohs  derived  from  this  region  in  gold  and  silver,  a  sum  which  Mr. 
William  Jacob  computes  to  have  been  equal  to  ^^6, 000, 000  per  an- 
num. According  to  the  hieroglyphics  in  the  Memnomium  under  the 
figure  of  the  King,  who  is  offering  produce  to  Amun  Ra,  the  gold 
and  silver  mines  of  Nubia  are  held  to  have  yielded  altogether  3, 200, 000 
minse,  a  sum  which  Rev.  John  Yeats  (Hist.  Commerce,  48)  regards 
as  equivalent  to  ^7,000,000:  but  which  we  believe  amounted  to  2^ 
times  as  much.  If  this  computation  can  be  depended  upon,  the  Nu- 
bian mines  were  as  prolific  as  have  since  been  those  of  either  Italy, 
Spain,  Brazil,  Russia,  Australia,  or  California.  An  able  writer  in 
Appleton's  Encyclopedia  says  that  in  Lower  Nubia,  in  or  about  the 
same  latitude  as  the  Second  Cataract  of  the  Nile,  lie  "vast  and  fer- 
tile, but  neglected  plains,  which  it  is  conjectured  were,  at  some  re- 
mote period,  reached  by  the  inundations  of  the  Nile."  If  the  inun- 
dations of  the  main  stream  could  have  reached  these  plains  at  any 
former  period,  they  certainly  can  reach  them  now,  that  the  bed  of 
the  river  is  higher  than  it  ever  was  before.  Marsh  testifies  that  since 
the  Augustan  jera  the  river  bed  has  risen  seven  feet  at  Thebes  and 
nearly  four  feet  at  the  Delta.  The  Encyclopedist  must  therefore  be 
mistaken  as  to  the  cause  of  the  desolation  noticed.  The  fact  is,  that 
anciently  Nubia  was  watered  by  numerous  small  streams  that  flowed 
into  the  Nile,  and  were  employed  to  irrigate  these  desert  plains — 
once  the  Lombardy  of  Africa — but  which  after  they  had  been  diverted 
by  the  gold  miners,  and  their  sources  of  supply  cut  off  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  forests  in  the  foot-hills  for  mining  timbers,  fell  into  the 


EGYPT.  35 

condition  of  "washes,"  which  now  are  only  flooded  for  a  brief  pe- 
riod during  the  rainy  season  of  March  to  May,and  are  quite  dry  for  the 
remainder  of  the  year.  These  "washes,"  or  dried-iip  water-courses, 
are  called  by  the  Arabs  "wadys."  Besides  these  there  are  the  un- 
derground rivers  alluded  to  in  Reclus,  278.  Without  surface  rivers, 
there  are,  of  course,  no  irrigating  canals. 

Such  is  Nubia  to-day.  Its  hills  have  been  leveled  into  a  plain  of 
sand  and  gravel ;  its  alluvial  soil  has  been  washed  into  the  Nile,  which 
has  transported  it  a  distance  of  a  thousand  miles  to  fill  up  the  mo- 
rasses, and  form  the  Delta  of  Egypt;  its  forests  have  been  cut  down; 
its  rivers  have  been  either  dried  up  or  submerged ;  and  where  the  na- 
tive has  not  abandoned  it  altogether,  he  has  degenerated  to  the  level 
of  a  savage.  The  Arabs  call  the  natives  "  Berbers,"  a  term  equiva- 
lent to  the  Roman  word  barbarian,  and  possibly  of  the  same  origin. 
Treachery,  dishonesty,  drunkenness,  and  filth  characterize  the  men, 
and  vulgarity  and  licentiousness  the  women,  many  of  whom  are  worked 
as  beasts  of  burden,  to  plough  the  land  or  tow  the  boats  on  the  Nile. 
Both  sexes  go  naked,  and  the  money  of  the  country  is  a  sort  of  broom- 
corn,  called  dourra.  Such  are  the  results  of  e.\i)loiting  the  country 
for  gold. 

Gold  has  been  found  in  nearly  every  region  tributary  to  the  Nile, 
from  the  Equator  to  the  First  Cataract.  The  following  summary  of 
these  regions  affords  a  brief  view  of  the  information  which  has  been 
collected  on  this  subject: 

Darfoor.  Hon.  Robert  Curzon  in  his  "Armenia,"  p.  120,  written 
in  1854,  says  that  some  years  previously  he  met  at  Assouan,  a  Euro- 
pean from  the  mountains  beyond  Darfoor,  lat.  12  N.,  long.  26  E., 
who  showed  him  several  strongly  made  iron-bound  chests  full  of  gold 
from  that  region.  Some  of  the  gold  was  in  nuggets,  but  the  most  part 
was  in  the  form  of  rings  (bangs)  the  size  of  bracelets,  and  others  of 
the  size  of  large  heavy  finger-rings,  all  of  pure  gold.  These  rings  were 
passed  in  Darfoor  as  money,  and  were  of  the  same  form  as  those  used 
for  a  similar  purpose  by  the  ancient  Egyptians,  in  fact  the  same  as 
the  rings  found  in  all  Gothic  countries,  including  ancient  Britain. 

Kordofan.  This  region  lies  between  Darfoor  and  the  Nile.  It  abounds 
with  auriferous  placers,  which  are  washed  by  slaves.  Yet  it  uses  an 
overvalued  iron  money.  Forty  or  fifty  years  ago  the  production  and 
trade  in  gold  was  monopolized  by  the  pasha;  nevertheless  gold  was 
sold  clandestinely  at  the  rate  of  $8  in  silver  for  430  grains  of  fine 
gold,  equal  to  $17.30  per  oz.  Troy,  or  about  15  per  cent,  under  the 
mint  value. 


36  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Takale  District,  White  Nile.  Sheiban,  modern  Seizaban,  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  White  Nile,  within  the  Takale  or  Takla  district,  in 
the  Kordofan  country,  lat.  1 2  N. ,  is  spoken  of  by  Pinkerton  as  a  placer 
gold  country.  At  Luca,  apparently  in  the  same  district,  as  well  as  at 
Sheiban,  gold,  probably  gold  dust  in  quills,  was  the  only  money  em- 
ployed. 

Shoa.  The  Portuguese  commander  Albuquerque,  landed  on  the  coast 
of  Abyssinia  about  the  year  15 10,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  ransack 
the  country  for  gold.  Amongst  the  means  which  he  employed  was  to 
enslave  the  living  in  the  mines,  and  plunder  the  graves  of  the  dead. 
His  rapacity  and  cruelty  left  so  strong  an  impression  on  the  natives. 
that  up  to  a  very  recent  date,  1841,  and  perhaps  even  to  the  present 
day,  the  use  or  possession  of  gold  is  strictly  forbidden  in  the  king- 
dom of  Shoa.  The  monopoly  of  the  gold  trade  by  the  sovereign  of 
that  country  may  have  something  to  do  with  this  interdict.  In  spite 
of  it,  however,  gold  in  1841  was  sold  surreptitiously  for  about  nine 
silver  dollars  per  ounce  Troy. 

Fazooglu  Country  on  the  Blue  Nile.  The  Saukin  merchants  deal 
in  gold  brought  from  this  region,  which  is  in  lat.  11  N.  In  October, 
1838,  Mahomet  Ali  left  Cairo  in  a  steamboat  to  visit  this  country. 
The  mines  proved  to  be  near  the  confluence  of  the  Blue  Nile  and  the 
Fazangoro.  After  inspecting  them,  Mahomet  left  a  colony  to  work 
them  for  wages,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  a  town  near  by,  to  con- 
tain fifteen  hundred  families;  but  the  mines  failed  to  pay,  and  the 
town  has  gone  to  ruins.  The  previous  productiveness  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  mines  were  worked  by  slaves,  who  were  paid  nothing  for 
their  labour  but  blows. 

Kaffa.  HerrCamill  Russ  (1878)  says  that  in  the  Kaffa  country  south 
of  Abyssinia,  lat.  7  N. ,  gold  is  found  so  plentifully  that  it  is  not  much 
dearer  than  silver  coins  of  the  same  weight.  The  reader  can  believe 
as  much  of  this  statement  as  he  pleases. 

Sasu  Country  on  the  Takaze.  Adowa  is  in  Abyssinia,  about  fifty 
miles  from  the  Takaze,  and  in  lat.  14  N.  Gold  is  one  of  the  principal 
articles  of  the  transit  trade  through  this  place,  and  of  the  export 
trade  from  Abyssinia  generally.  Some  of  this  gold  probably  comes 
from  the  Kaffa  country.  Cosmos,  a  Greek  writer  who  visited  Ethio- 
pia (Abyssinia)  about  A.  D.  535,  gives  an  account  of  this  trade,  which, 
in  his  time,  appears  to  have  centered  at  Axum,  which  was  the  capital. 
The  gold  came  from  a  country  called  Sasu. 

Meroe.  Strabo,  xvii,  ii,  2,  while  describing  Meroe,  says  "there 
are  also  mines  of  copper,  iron,  gold,  and  various  kinds  of  precious 


r^ 


EGYPT.  37 

Stones."  This  reference  is  applicable  not  merely  to  Mcroe,  which  is 
an  alluvial  plain  containing  no  gold  mines,  but  to  the  whole  of  Nu- 
bia. The  mention  of  gold  mines  in  connection  with  Meroe  may  have 
been  derived  from  the  fact  that  Shendy,  lat.  17  X.,  was  a  mart  for 
the  gold  of  the  Upper  Nile  regions.  McCuUoch,  writing  in  1838,  says 
it  is  so  still,  the  price  of  gold  being  $16  an  ounce  and  that  Sennaar 
on  the  Blue  Nile,  lat.  13  N.,  is  also  one,  the  price  of  gold  being  §12 
an  ounce  in  silver  dollars. 

Below  the  Cataracts.  There  are  no  gold  mines  below  the  cataracts 
says  Englehardt.  The  first  or  lowest  cataract  is  in  lat.  24  N.,  and 
this,  therefore,  is  the  northern  limit  to  the  gold  mines  of  Egypt. 

Somali.  The  above  list  comprises  all  the  gold  mines  in  the  valley 
of  the  Nile  (except  the  Bisharee)  from  the  iiih  Parallel,  which  was 
regarded  as  the  extreme  southern  limit  of  Egyptian  authority,  to  the 
24th  Parallel,  north  of  which  no  mines  have  been  found.  Besides 
those  of  the  Nile  Valley,  there  are  numerous  gold  mines  in  the  sur- 
rounding countries,  other  than  those  mentioned  by  Herodotus,  which 
are  supposed  by  Rawlinson  to  have  been  in  the  Somali  country.  This 
is  on  the  south  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Aden.  At  the  present  time  there 
are  some  small  lots  of  dust  shipped  from  Leila  and  Berbera,  long.  45  E. 
There  are  gold  mines  also  in  the  Kaffa  country  previously  noticed, 
and  others  in  the  coast  range  of  the  Red  Sea.  We  now  come  to  the 
principal  gold  regions  of  Egypt,  and  the  greatest  of  all  antiquity. 

The  Bisharee  Mines.  These  auriferous  mines  are  in  the  Bisharee 
country,  situated  in  the  great  Nubian  bentl  of  the  Nile,  between  lat. 
20  and  22  40  N.,  and  between  long.  32  30  and  35  20  East.  The  quartz 
veins  have  a  course  N.W.-S.E.  In  the  Pharaonic  period  the  produce 
of  these  mines  was  sent  down  the  Nile.  The  shipping  port  was  Edfou, 
or  Apollinopolis  Magna,  or  Redesiah,  in  lat.  24  58.  It  was  ten  days 
journey  N.W.  from  the  mines.  Opposite  to  Edfou  was  Bahayreh.  In 
the  Ptolemaic  period  the  i)r')tluce  was  transported  to  various  ports  on 
the  Red  Sea,  among  them  Berenice,  lat.  24  N.,  a  distance  of  about 
260  miles  from  the  most  productive  mines.  This  place  is  now  a  mere 
ruin.  The  Bisharee  country  forms  the  foot-hills  to  the  sierras  of 
Abyssinia.  The  sierras  are  12,000  to  15.000  feet,  whilst  the  highest 
of  the  hills  is  about  6000  feet  in  altituiie.  The  latter  gradually  dimin- 
ish until  they  melt  into  the  plains  of  Egypt.  According  to  Linant  de 
Bellefonds,  there  are  remains  of  gold  mines  at  the  following  places 
in  the  Bisharee  region: 

Oum  (iuereyatte;  Ceiga,  22  30  N.,  ^^  50  E.  ;  Gebel  Offene;  Gebel 
Abdulla;  Gebel  Matchouchelennave ;  Gebel  om  Cabrillc ;  Tamilla  Ge- 


38  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

bel  Essewed;  Gebel  Tellatabd.  All  these  are  situated  in  the  hilly 
country  of  the  Cawatil  Arabs,  between  about  21  30  N.  and  32  50  and 
34  20  E. 

Oum  Tayour;  Wady  Sohone;  WadyHagatte;  WadyAffawe;  Wady 
Daguena ;  Wady  Camolit ;  Derehib,  2 1  40  N. ,  35  E. ;  and  Wady  Chawa- 
nib.  These  are  in  the  country  of  the  Mansour  Melecat  Arabs,  lying 
east  of  the  foregoing  and  west  of  35  20  E.  At  Derehib  the  quartz  ex- 
cavations are  of  immense  extent. 

Raft;  Kelle;  and  Absab.  These  are  in  the  country  of  the  Foukar 
Arabs,  between  20  21  N.  and  about  32  30  E. 

Among  the  water  resources  now  traceable  are  the  following  wadys 
(a  term  applied  by  some  Arabs  to  all  water  courses  whether  filled  with 
a  running  stream  of  water  or  dried  up) :  Al-aki  (anc.  Akita) ;  Sohone; 
Hagatte;  Affawe;  Daguena;  Camolit;  and  Chawanib.  It  seems  prob- 
able that  in  remote  times  all  these  wadys  were  running  streams.  There 
are  also  numerous  streams  that,  in  flood-time,  still  swell  into  devas- 
tating torrents  and  lose  themselves  in  the  desert,  to  make  their  way 
underground  to  the  Nile.  Numerous  wells  tap  these  underground 
streams. 

Next  to  the  mines  of  the  Altai  mountains  of  Asia,  the  Bisharee 
mines  of  Egypt  are  among  the  oldest  in  the  world;  and  in  view  of 
the  evidently  Oriental  origin  of  the  Egyptians,  and  the  distant  re- 
searches and  conquests  which  have  been  made  by  leading  nations  in 
all  ages  for  the  acquisition  of  gold,  it  seems  not  at  all  improbable 
that  there  existed  a  close  connection  between  the  discovery  of  the 
Egyptian  mines  and  the  original  settlement  of  the  country  by  Asi- 
atic races.  At  what  sera  this  occurred  cannot  be  determined  with  any 
approach  to  certainty.  Scholars  of  the  present  age  are  no  less  anxious 
to  find  a  place  in  chronology  for  Hesiris  and  Isis,  than  were  Heca- 
tseus  and  Herodotus  to  assign  an  actual  sera  to  Hercules  and  Venus; 
and  the  entire  current  of  literary  and  archaeological  research  is  viti- 
ated by  the  unwarrantable  intrusion  of  personages  into  history  whose 
only  legitimate  domain  lies  within  the  pages  of  mythology  and  fable. 
If  conjecture  be  admitted  where  dates  are  thus  in  doubt,  it  appears 
likely  that  the  Bisharee  mines  were  worked  for  placer  gold  so  early 
as  the  i6th  or  15th  centuries  B.C.  However  this  may  be, these  mines 
are  believed  by  Mariette  Bey  to  have  been  worked  for  quartz  gold  so 
long  ago  as  the  Xllth  dynasty  of  Egypt,  From  the  fact,  understood 
by  every  miner,  that  quartz  is  never  worked  so  long  as  the  placers 
contain  the  smallest  practical  quantity  of  metal,  and  judging  from 
the  experience  of  Italy,  Spain,  and  Brazil — where  extensive  placer 


EGVPT.  39 

deposits  were  worked,  as  in  Egypt,  by  the  hand  labour  of  slaves — 
the  Bisharee  placer  mines  were  at  least  two  hundred  years  old  when 
the  cjuartz  was  worked  under  the  Xllth  dynasty  of  the  Pharoahs. 
Bunsen,  by  according  ;^^  years  to  the  reign  of  each  of  Manetho's 
kings, dates  this  B.C.  2466-1 733.  We  should  be  disposed  to  lower  these 
dates  to  the  extent  of  a  millenium.  The  next  date  at  which  these 
mines  are  believed  to  have  been  worked  is  under  Thotmes  III.,  of 
the  XVlIIth  dynasty ;  under  Seti  Setlios,  or  Sethothis,  of  the  XlXth 
dynasty,  and  under  Rames,  or  Rameses  II,,  son  of  Seti.  All  these 
names  are  derived  from  inscriptions  on  the  neighbouring  rocks  and 
temples,  but  whether  they  are  valid,  or  not,  is  questionable. 

During  the  XVIIIth  dynasty  the  Egyptians  also  obtained  gold  in 
bags  from  the  Soudan.  About  1500  B.C.  gold  was  produced  in  the 
land  of  Pun  (an  East  Indian  word  for  gold)  on  the  southeastern  shores 
of  the  Red  Sea.  About  1300  B.C.  the  Egyptians  captured  a  number 
of  gold,  silver  and  brass  vessels  from  the  Libyan  chief  who  invaded 
Egypt  with  his  Mediterranean  allies,  (Prof.  Petrie,  in  Harper's,  July, 
1888,)  but  this  gold  may  have  come  from  a  distant  part  of  Africa. 
The  vast  sum  of  "silver  and  gold  money  "  which  is  said  to  have  been 
contained  in  the  treasury  of  Rhampsinitus,an  Egyptian  monarch  whose 
aera  is  assigned  by  Rawlinson  to  the  XVIIIth  dynasty,  points  both 
to  the  working  of  the  Bisharee  mines  for  gold  and  to  commerce  with 
Spain  for  silver.  The  former  are  the  only  mines  known  to  have  been 
worked  at  that  period  whence  any  large  supplies  of  gold  could  have 
come;  the  latter  is  the  only  country  which  at  that  period  could  have 
supplied  any  considerable  quantity  of  silver.  The  disappointment  of 
Cambyses  in  respect  of  the  Egyptian  spoil  and  the  character  of  the 
treasures  which  he  carried  away  from  Egypt,  about  B.  C.  526;  the 
tribute  imposed  by  Darius,  which  was  only  700  talents  in  money,  to- 
gether with  7000  talents  worth  of  corn  and  the  produce  of  Mccris; 
as  well  as  the  annual  revenues  of  Ptolemy  Auletes,  the  father  of  Cleo- 
patra, which  were  only  "  12,500  talents  "  a  year;  imply  that  the  pro- 
duc*ion  of  the  precious  metals  upon  a  large  scale  had  ceased.  The 
country  was  exhausted. 

In  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Philopata,  B.  C.  180-170,  the  Bisharee 
mines  were  visited  by  Agatharchides  of  Cnidus,  who  has  left  us  a 
brief  and  unsatisfactory  account  of  them.  In  B.  C.  50  the  Bisharee 
mines  were  visited  by  Diodorus  Siculus.  He  says:  "  On  the  confines 
of  Egypt  and  the  neighbouring  countries  there  are  regions  full  of 
gold  mines,  whence,  with  the  cost  and  pains  of  many  labourers,  much 
gold  is  dug.    The  soil  is  naturally  black,  but  in  the  body  of  the  earth 


40  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

there  are  many  veins  of  shining  white  quartz,  gUttering  with  all  sorts 
of  bright  metals,  out  of  which  those  appointed  to  be  overseers  cause 
the  gold  to  be  dug  by  the  labour  of  a  vast  multitude  of  people.  For 
the  kings  of  Egypt  condemn  to  these  mines  not  only  notorious  crim- 
inals, captives  taken  in  war,  persons  accused  of  false  dealings,  and 
those  with  whom  the  king  is  offended,  but  also  all  the  kindred  and 
relatives  of  the  convicts.  These  are  sent  to  this  work,  either  as  a 
punishment,  or  that  the  profit  and  gain  of  the  king  may  be  increased 
by  their  labour. 

' '  There  are  thus  infinite  numbers  thrown  into  these  mines,  all  bound 
in  fetters,  kept  at  work  night  and  day,  and  so  strictly  surrounded  that 
there  is  no  possibility  of  their  effecting  an  escape.'  They  are  guarded 
by  mercenary  soldiers  of  various  barbarous  nations,  whose  language 
is  foreign  to  them  and  to  each  other,  so  that  there  are  no  means  of 
forming  conspiracies  or  of  corrupting  those  who  are  set  to  watch 
them.  They  are  kept  to  incessant  work  by  the  rod  of  the  overseer, 
who  often  lashes  them  severely.  Not  the  least  care  is  taken  of  the 
bodies  of  these  poor  creatures;  they  have  not  a  rag  to  cover  their 
nakedness;  and  whoever  sees  them  must  compassionate  their  melan- 
choly and  deplorable  condition,  for  though  they  may  be  sick,  maimed 
or  lame,  no  rest  nor  any  intermission  of  labour  is  allowed  them. 
Neither  the  weakness  of  old  age,  nor  the  infirmities  of  females,  ex- 
cuse any  from  the  work,  to  which  all  are  driven  by  blows  and  cudgels; 
until  borne  down  by  the  intolerable  weight  of  their  misery,  many  fall 
dead  in  the  midst  of  their  insufferable  labours.  Deprived  of  all  hope, 
these  miserable  creatures  expect  each  day  to  be  worse  than  the  last, 
and  long  for  death  to  end  their  sufferings." 

During  the  Roman  period  the  Bisharee  mines  were  visited  and  de- 
scribed by  Cosmos,  a  Greek  writer,  A.  D.  535,  but  we  have  no  account 
of  Roman  production  from  this  source.  During  the  Arabian  period 
they  were  visited  or  described  by  Edrisi,  A.  D.  1099-1164;  Abulfeda, 
king  of  Hamah  in  Syria,  12 73- 1331;  Ibn-al  Wardy,  d.  1358;  Macrizi, 
1385  ;  and  Massandi,  of  the  14th  or  15th  century,  all  Arabians.  These 
writers  allude  to  the  Bisharee  country  as  the  "land  of  Bega. " 

In  recent  times  these  mines  were  visited  by  Belonzi,  Linant  de 
Bellefonds,  Bonomi,  and  Mahomet  Ali,  the  last  of  whom,  as  above 
mentioned,  reopened  and  worked  some  of  them  for  a  short  time,  but 
without  success.  The  following  extract  is  from  Wilkinson's  "  Ancient 
Egyptians":  The  gold  mines  of  Egypt,  or  of  Ethiopia,  though  men- 
tioned by  Agatharchides  and  later  writers,  and  worked  even  by  the 
Arabian  caliphs,  long  remained  unknown.     Their  position  was  only 


EGYPT.  41 

ascertained  a  few  years  since  by  M.  Linant  de  Bellefonds  anil  M. 
Bonomi.  They  lie  in  the  Bisharee  desert,  the  land  of  Begah.  or  of 
the  "Bugait"  mentioned  in  the  inscription  at  Axuni,  about  seven- 
teen or  eighteen  days  journey  to  the  southeastward  from  Derow, 
which  is  situated  on  the  Nile,  a  little  above  Kom  Ombo,  the  ancient 
Ombos.  Those  travellers  met  with  the  same  Cufic  funereal  inscrip- 
tions, which,  from  tiieir  dates,  show  that  the  mines  were  worked  in 
the  years  A.  D.  95  i  and  989,  the  former  being  in  the  fifth  year  of  the 
Caliph  Al  Mostakfi  Billah  a  short  time  before  the  arrival  of  the  Fat- 
iniites  in  Egypt,  the  latter  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  El  Aziz,  the 
second  (fifth)  of  the  Fatimite  dynasty.  The  mines  continued  to  be 
worked  till  a  much  later  period,  and  were  afterwards  abandoncil,  the 
value  of  the  gold  barely  covering  the  expenses;  nor  did  Mahomet  Ali, 
who  in  the  present  century  sent  to  examine  them  and  obtain  speci- 
mens of  the  ore,  find  it  worth  while  to  work  them  for  long. 

The  matrix  is  quartz:  and  so  diligent  a  search  did  the  Egyptians 
establish  throughout  the  deserts  of  the  Nile,  for  this  precious  metal, 
(continues  Wilkinson,)  that  I  never  remember  to  have  seen  a  vein  of 
quartz  in  any  of  the  primitive  ranges  which  had  not  been  carefully 
examined  by  their  miners;  certain  portions  having  been  invariably 
picked  out  from  the  fissures  in  which  it  lay  and  then  broken  into 
small  fragments.  The  same  was  done  in  later  times  by  the  Romans 
and  Arabians.  .  .  .  The  gnUl  mines  are  said  by  Abulfeda  to  be  situ- 
ated at  El  Allaga,  (or  Ollagee,)  but  Eshuranib  (or  Eshuanib)  the 
principal  place,  is  about  three  days  journey  beyond  Wady  Allaga, 
according  to  M.  Bonomi,  to  whom  I  ana  indebted  for  the  following 
account  of  the  mines:  "The  direction  of  the  excavations  depends 
on  that  of  the  strata  in  which  the  ore  is  found;  and  the  position  of 
the  various  shafts  differs  accordingly.  As  to  the  manner  of  extract- 
ing the  metal,  some  notion  may  be  given  by  a  description  of  the  ruins 
at  Eshuranib,  the  largest  station,  where  sufficient  remains  exist  to  ex- 
plain the  process  adopted.  The  princijial  excavation,  according  to 
M.  Linant's  measurement,  is  about  180  feet  deep.  In  the  valley  near 
the  most  accessible  part  of  the  excavation  are  several  huts,  built  of 
unhewn  stone,  their  walls  not  more  than  breast  high;  perhaps  the 
houses  of  the  excavators  or  the  guardians  of  the  mine.  Separated 
from  them  by  the  ravine  or  course  of  the  torrent  is  a  group  of 
houses,  about  three  hundred  in  number,  laid  out  very  regularly  in 
straight  lines.  In  those  nearest  the  mines  lived  the  workmen  who 
were  employed  to  break  the  quartz  into  small  fragments,  (the  size  of 
a  bean,)  from  whose  hands  the  pounded  stone  passed  to  the  persons 


42  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

who  ground  it  in  stone  hand-mills,  similar  to  those  now  used  for  corn 
in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  one  of  which  is  to  be  found  in  almost  every 
house  at  these  mines,  either  entire  or  broken.  The  quartz  thus  re- 
duced to  powder  was  washed  on  inclined  tables,  furnished  with  two 
cisterns,  all  built  of  stone.  Near  these  inclined  tables  are  generally 
found  little  white  dumps  of  debris,  the  residue  of  the  operation.  Be- 
sides the  numerous  remains  of  houses  at  this  station,  are  two  large 
buildings,  with  towers  at  the  angles,  built  of  granite.  The  valley  has 
many  trees,  and  in  a  high  part  of  the  torrent-bed  is  a  sort  of  island, 
or  isolated  bank,  on  which  we  found  many  tombstones,  some  written 
in  the  ancient  Cufic  character,  very  similar  to  those  at  Assouan." 

Says  Diodorus  Siculus:  "When  the  stone  containing  the  gold  is 
hard,  the  Egyptians  soften  it  by  the  application  of  fire,  and  when  it 
has  been  reduced  to  such  a  state  that  it  yields  to  moderate  labour, 
several  thousands  (myriads)  of  these  unfortunate  people  break  it  with 
iron  picks.  Over  the  whole  work  presides  an  engineer,  who  views  and 
selects  the  stone,  and  points  it  out  to  the  labourers.  The  strongest 
of  them,  provided  with  iron  chisels,  cleave  the  quartz  by  mere  force, 
without  any  attempt  at  skill ;  and  in  excavating  the  shaft  below  ground 
they  follow  the  direction  of  the  glistening  stratum,  without  keeping 
a  straight  line.  In  order  to  see  in  these  dark  windings,  they  fasten 
lamps  to  their  foreheads,  having  their  bodies  painted  sometimes  of 
one  and  sometimes  of  another  colour,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
rock;  and  as  they  cut  the  stone,  it  falls  in  masses  on  the  floor,  the 
overseer  urging  them  to  the  work  with  commands  and  blows.  They 
are  followed  by  little  boys,  who  take  away  the  fragments  as  they  fall, 
and  carry  them  out  into  the  open  air.  Those  who  are  above  thirty 
years  of  age  are  employed  to  pound  pieces  of  the  stone,  of  certain 
dimensions,  with  iron  pestles  in  stone  mortars,  until  reduced  to  the 
size  of  a  bean.  The  whole  is  then  transferred  to  women,  and  old  men, 
who  put  it  into  mills  arranged  in  a  long  row,  two  or  three  persons 
being  employed  at  the  same  mill,  and  it  is  pounded  until  reduced  to 
a  fine  powder.  .  .  At  length  the  masters  take  the  stone  thus  ground 
to  powder,  and  carry  it  away  to  undergo  the  final  process." 

The  mines  described  by  Diodorus  are  supposed  by  Mariette  Bey 
("Histoire  ancienne  d'Egypte,"  1867,  p.  96)  to  have  been  situated 
at  Attaki  or  Allaki  near  the  Red  Sea,  120  miles  back  from  Ras  Elba, 
the  headland  midway  between  Berenice  and  Suakin.  Mariette  goes 
on  to  say  that  in  the  reign  of  Seti  I.,  of  the  XlXth  dynasty,  wells 
were  dug  on  this  route,  in  order  that  the  mines  which  had  been  ex- 
plored at  an  earlier  period  might  be  re-opened.   These  mines  are  prob- 


EGYPT. 


43 


ably  those  which  were  worked  by  the  Phoenicians,  who  called  the 
country  the  land  of  Pun,  or  gold.  Petrie  is  of  opinion  that  during 
the  XVIIIth  dynasty  Egypt  also  obtained  gold-dust  in  bags  from  the 
Soudan:  this  would  of  course  mean  from  the  placer  mines.  The  ear- 
liest mention  of  the  Egyptian  mines  in  western  literature  occurs  in 
Herodotus,  (Euterpe,  121,)  which  gives  us  the  wonderful  story  of 
Rampsinitus  and  his  vast  treasure  and  how  it  was  partly  abstracted 
by  a  clever  robber.  The  Father  of  History  omits  to  inform  us  of  what 
value  the  treasure  consisted,  but  Diodorus  Siculus,  who  calls  the 
monarch  Rhemphis,  says  that  it  amounted  to  400  thousand  talents  in 
gold  and  silver.  If  "  talent  "  here  means  anything  more  than  a  sum 
of  five  staters,  the  sum  is  excessive  and  incredible.  Even  if  many 
centuries  be  deducted  from  the  interval  of  time  usually  accorded  to 
the  XVIIIth  dynasty,  it  is  impossible  that  any  large  amount  of  silver 
could  have  been  collected  at  that  period,  when  iron  was  unknown  and 
quartz-mining  impracticable.   The  account  is  probably  fabulous. 

The  extensive  area  covered  by  the  gold  depositesof  Egypt  and  the 
great  antiquity  of  the  country,  when  viewed  as  a  populated  region, 
has  led  to  gold-mining  upon  so  vast  and  long-continued  a  scale,  as 
to  greatly  alter  the  physical  aspects  and  by  consequence  the  social 
circumstances,  of  that  favoured  land.  Even  in  Brazil,  where  gold-min- 
ing history  did  not  cover  a  period  of  two  centuries  similar  conse- 
quences are  to  be  observed.  The  water  courses  of  Minhas  Gerres 
(that  is  to  say,  many  of  them)  are  altered  by  bodily  diversions  or  col- 
lateral ditch  lines;  the  hills  have  been  washetl  into  the  valleys;  the 
arable  lands  are  strewn  with  gravel;  and  the  inhabitants  are  reduced 
to  poverty,  nakedness  and  crime. 


44 


CHAPTER  V. 

GREECE. 

Silver  mines  of  Laurium — Antiquity — Extent — Worked  by  slaves — Their  frequent 
revolts — Scheme  of  Xenophon — Modern  re-opening  of  Laurium — Strange  good  for- 
tune— Mines  of  Thasus — Their  revenues — Destroyed  by  inundations  of  the  sea — Gold 
mines  of  Pangjeus — Reputed  to  have  been  opened  by  Cadmus — Re-opened  by  Philip 
— Mines  of  Samos — Venetian  custom  of  marrying  the  sea — Story  told  of  Polycrates — 
Lead  coins  cased  with  gold — Description  of  the  Samian  mines  by  Theophrastus — The 
"  Pelasgians" — Mines  in  Albania — Dalmatia — Croatia — Bosnia — Ser\-ia — Thrace  and 
Bulgaria — Mines  of  Sidherokapsa — Immense  revenues  formerly  obtained  from  them 
by  the  Turks — Greek  colonies  in  Asia. 

THE  mines  of  Laurium  were  situated  near  Cape  Sunium,  on  the 
coast  of  Attica,  about  30  miles  from  Athens.  They  stretched 
from  Anaphlystus  to  Thoricus,  a  distance  of  about  8^  English  miles. 
All  of  these  places  were  fortified.'  The  ores  of  the  mines  were  re- 
duced by  smelting  and  the  smelting  works  were  situated  at  or  near 
Anaphlystus,  now  called  Ergasteria,  The  mines  of  Laurium  are  re- 
ferred to  by  some  of  the  oldest  Athenian  and  Roman  writers  whose 
works  remain  to  us.  These  include  yEschylus,  Themistocles,  Herod- 
otus, Thucydides,  Xenophon,  Pythocles,  Aristotle,  Cornelius  Nepos, 
Pausanias,  and  Hesychius.  When  first  discovered,  the  mines  of  Lau- 
rium probably  yielded  native  silver  in  small  quantities.  The  archi- 
tectural ruins  and  animal-headed  gods  and  other  remains  recently 
found  at  Mycenae  and  Tiryns  do  not  at  all  resemble  Greek  remains, 
whilst  they  do  resemble  Phoenician  ones.  Dr.  Dorffeld  says:  "The 
conformity  between  the  structures  of  Tiryns  and  Byrsa  (Carthage) 
must  be  looked  upon  as  a  proof  that  both  were  erected  by  Phoenician 
builders."  For  these  reasons,  we  are  inclined  to  the  belief  that  Lau- 
rium, like  Thasus,  was  originally  opened  either  by  the  Phoenicians, or 
the  Venetians  of  Pontus:  a  conjecture  that  derives  corroboration 
from  the  statement  in  Julius  Pollux  that  Eric-theus  (a  Venetian  demi- 
god or  hero  whose  sera,  is  fixed  at  B.C.  1406)  first  introduced  coins 
into  Greece.  This  archaic  condition  of  the  mines — that  of  working 
them  for  such  native  silver  as  appeared  in  the  quartz — probably  con- 

'  Boeckh,  279. 


GREECE.  45 

tinned  a  long  while  before  they  were  attacked  with  steel  tools  and 
systematically  opened.  It  was  during  this  interval,  or  shortly  after 
its  close,  that  Pheidon  of  Ar^os^  B.C.  7J.8.  struck  qo^ns  inthe  island 
of  ^-Eg-jna,  which  is  within  sight  both  of  Athens  and  Laurium,  troffl" 
which  latter  source  the  metal  was  doubtless  obtained.  The  ore  from 
these  mines  was  known  to  the  Greeks  as  cadmia  (probably  from  Cad- 
mus) and  is  now  known  as  calamine.  It  is  a  silicate  of  zinc  and,  as 
found  in  the  Laurium  mines,  contains  zinc,  lead,  silver  and  some 
other  metals.  In  the  time  of  Themistocles,  about  B.  C.  500,  when 
these  mines  appear  to  have  been  very  productive,  they  seem  to  have 
yielded  to  the  State,  which  let  or  leased  them  in  fee-farm  to  private 
persons,  about  30  to  40  talents  per  annum.*  As  this  was  the  twenty- 
fourth  part  of  the  produce,  the  latter  must  have  amounted  to  between 
720  and  960  talents  yearly.  The  Attic  talent  was  equal  to  about  half 
a  hundred  weight:  so  that  if  a  talent  weight  is  here  meant,  the  pro- 
duce of  silver  amounted  to  between  360  and  480  cwt.  At  the  epoch 
of  Themistocles  silver  was  valued  by  law  in  Greece  at  one-tenth  of 
its  weight  in  gold.  Reckoned  in  gold  the  annual  produce  of  Laurium 
was  worth  36  to  48  cwt.  of  that  metal.  This,  if  coined  into  sover- 
eigns of  the  present  day,  would  equal  about  ^^200, 000  to  ^233,000, 
or  over  a  million  dollars.  The  mines  were  worked  by  slaves,  who, 
on  more  than  one  occasion,  revolted  from  the  cruel  labour  to  which 
they  were  forced,  and  to  which  they  were  again  forced  by  merciless 
repression.*  In  the  time  of  Socrates  and  Xenophon  these  mines  so 
far  as  the  mechanical  resources  of  that  age  are  concerned,  were  prac- 
tically worked  out:  yet  the  latter,  in  his  treatise  on  the  "Revenues  of 
Athens,"  offers  a  scheme  to  re-open  them  with  the  labour  of  10,000 
slaves.  That  this  scheme  was  actually  put  in  practice  may  be  inferred 
from  the  exemption  of  the  silver  mines  from  ta.xation,  which  appears 
in  the  following  extract  from  the  laws  of  Athens:  "Those  who  do 
quit  their  own  estates  for  those  of  their  neighbours  shall  be  obliged 
by  oath  to  discover  them  in  this  form:  '  I  will  fairly  and  honestly 
make  known  the  estimate  of  all  my  possessions,  e.xcept  such  as  con- 
sist in  those  silver  mines  from  which  the  laws  e.xact  no  duties.'  No 
one  shall  be  compelled  to  exhibit  his  estate  which  lies  in  mines."* 
In  spite  of  these  advantages  it  is  evident  that  the  mines  were  not 
profitable  and  that  as  time  went  on  it  became  more  and  more  difficult 
to  sustain  the  monetary  circulation  with  coins;  and  yet  to  preserve 
the  customary  level  of  prices.   Witness  the  following  law:     "  Let  no 

'  Bo€ckh,  417.  *  .\thenxus,  vi,  104  ;  Moylc's  Xenophon,  Note  23. 

*  Potter's  .\ntiq.  of  Greece,  1,  18S. 


46  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Athenian  or  sojourner  lend  money  to  be  exported,  unless  (to  pay)  for 
corn  or  some  such  commodity  allowed  by  law."  ^  We  are  far  from 
wishing  to  ascribe  the  decline  of  the  Greek  power  to  the  failure  of 
the  mines;  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  at  a  period  when  metallic 
money  alone  seemed  practicable,  such  failure  must  have  had  a  tre- 
mendous effect  upon  the  politics  of  the  state.  Sir  Archibald  Alison 
has  clearly  demonstrated  this  to  be  true  with  regard  to  Rome  at  a 
subsequent  period.    Why  not  in  respect  of  Greece  at  an  earlier  one? 

After  the  Roman  Conquest  of  Greece,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  time 
of  Strabo,  some  of  the  richest  of  the  ekvolades  or  refuse  ores  of  Lau- 
rium,  of  which  vast  mounds  or  "dumps  "  lay  piled  up  on  the  surface, 
were  re-worked;  a  sign  that  some  new  and  more  economical  process 
or  mode  of  working  had  become  known  which  rendered  such  re-work- 
ing profitable.  This  conjecture  is  corroborated  by  what  Strabo  says 
of  the  Roman  silver  mines  of  Turdetania.  Demetrius  of  Phalereus, 
an  Attic  orator  of  the  third  century  B.  C,  having  boasted  that  his 
countrymen  worked  their  mines  with  an  energy  that  "promised  to 
dig  up  Plutus  himself,"  he  was  answered  by  Posidonius  of  Apamea, 
a  Greek  philosopher  of  a  later  age,  who  visited  the  Roman  works  in 
Spain:  "  There,"  said  he,  "  you  will  observe  no  wasted  energy.  The 
Romans  are  quite  different  from  the  Attic  miners,  whose  mining  work 
may  justly  come  under  the  Homerian  enigma,  that  'what  I  have  taken 
up  I  have  not  kept  and  what  I  secured,  I  threw  away.'  In  short,  the 
Turdetanian  miners  know  their  business,  and  make  a  good  profit. 
They  get  25  per  cent,  of  metal  from  their  copper  ores,  while  from  the 
silver  mines  a  single  person  has  taken  as  much  (per  day)  as  an  Eu- 
boean  talent."  Something  of  this  was  doubtless  exaggeration,  for 
Strabo  says  that  his  language  was  turgid  enough  to  have  been  dug 
from  the  mines  themselves.  °  Nevertheless  Posidonius  was  one  of  the 
ablest  men  of  his  age  and  the  great  difference  which  he  noticed  be- 
tween the  mining  methods  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  must  have  had 
a  large  basis  of  truth."  Our  own  observation  of  the  works  which  the 
ancient  Greeks  have  left  in  Attica  and  the  ancient  Romans  in  Astu- 
rias,  etc.,  strongly  confirms  this  view.  In  the  time  of  Pausanias  the 
mines  of  Laurium  were  again  abandoned ;  and  yet  a  notable  revival 
of  these  very  ancient  mines  took  place  in  recent  times. 

About  the  year  1870  heqps  of  ekvolades  and  scoria  left  by  the  an- 
cients and  imperfectly  reduced  by  their  process,  enlisted  the  atten- 
tion of  French  and  Italian  capitalists,  who  bought  the  property  from 

*  Potter,  I,  19S.  ^Strabo,  in,  ii,  19. 

,^— '  Livy,  XLV,  lb,  alludes  to  the  profitable  character  of  Roman  mining  in  Macedonia. 


GREECK.  47 

its  Greek  owners  or  their  nominee  and  began  the  reduction  of  the 
refuse.  A  score  or  more  of  mining  companies  at  once  sprang  into  ex- 
istence, and  from  first  to  last  something  like  two  millions  sterling 
worth  of  silver  were  extracted  from  the  refuse  materials.'  The  dis- 
covery of  the  refuse  occurred  in  a  curious  manner.  Signor  Serpiere, 
an  Italian  engineer,  was  engaged  in  constructing  some  works  on  the 
coast  of  Italy,  when  a  vessel  arrived  from  Greece  in  ballast.  This 
ballast  having  been  thrown  near  Serpiere's  works,  the  latter  examined 
it  and  recognized  it  as  calamine  ore.  Upon  ascertaining  whence  it 
came  and  that  there  was  plenty  more  to  be  had,  the  enterprising  en- 
gineer at  once  went  to  Ergasteria,  surveyed  the  property,  secured  an 
option  upt)n  it  and  sold  this  at  an  enormous  advance  to  the  capital- 
ists above  alluded  to.  Besides  this,  he  secured  a  number  of  subsidiary 
advantages,  all  of  which  together  enabled  him  to  amass  a  large  and 
well  deserved  fortune.  According  to  the  "  Miners  and  Smelters  Mag- 
azine." vol.  VI,  pp.  2S6-322,the  Phaniician  slags  or  scoria,  by  which 
is  probably  meant  the  oldest  of  the  refuse,  yielded  no  silver  and  only 
§5  per  ton  in  lead;  whilst  the  Grecian  slags  yielded  6'^  per  cent,  of 
lead,  and  about  §90  silver  per  ton,  a  proof  that  the  Pha^iicians  were 
better  smelters  than  their  conquerors.  Besides  the  minerals  above 
mentioned,  the  Laurium  deposits  yielded  cinnabar  (the  ore  of  mer- 
cury) and  sil,  a  colouring  material,  highly  esteemed  by  the  ancients. 
Thasus,  an  island  of  the  Thracian  coast,  (written  Thasso  by  V^^e 
Greeks  "  and  Thassus  by  Livy,)  was  originally  colonized  by  Phoeni- 
cians from  Tyre  '°  and  went  by  the  various  names  of  Odonis,  Ogygia, 
Ceresis,  Acte,  Chryse,  etc.,  all  of  which  names  are  of  Buddhic  or 
Bacchic  origin.  Odonis  (or  Odin)  and  Ogygia  were  surnames  of  that 
deity,  whilst  Ceresis  and  Acte  were  surnames  of  Ceres,  the  Holy 
Mother,  and  Chryse  or  Chryses,  the  name  of  that  jiriest  of  the  Sun 
whose  daughter  became  the  prize  of  Agamemnon  at  Ilium.  Thassus 
itself  is  probably  a  corruption  of  lassus,  for  Pausanias  informs  us 
that  Thassus  was  the  son  of  Agenor,  the  brother  of  Europa  and  the 
leader  of  the  Phoenicians:  details  that  belong  to  the  myth  of  lassus. 
Herodotus  says  that  he  himself  visited  the  island  of  Thasus,  where 
he  saw  a  temple  totheThasian  Hercules  "erected  by  the  Phoenicians, 
whobuiltThasuswhile  they  were  engaged  in  search  of  Europa,an  event 
which  happened  five  generations  before  Hercules,  the  son  of  Amphi- 
trj'on,  was  known  in  Greece."  "   The  "Thasian  Hercules  "was  lassus. 

•  U.  S.  Commefcial  Relations  1S73,  p.  6f)i.  and  private  information  derived  from 
some  of  the  engineers  connected  with  these  enterprises. 

•Nisard's  note  to  Tomponius  Mela,  li,  2.       '"  Pausanias,  v,  25.        •'  Euterpe,  4.;. 


48  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

We  know  but  little  more  of  the  early  history  of  Thasus  beyond  the 
fact  that  its  mines  were  celebrated  for  their  yield  of  gold  and  silver; 
that  the  most  productive  ones  were  in  the  S.  E.  district  between 
^4inyra  and  Coenyra;  and  that  the  Thasians,  in  addition  to  the  mines 
of  the  island,  owned  and  worked  those  of  Scapte  Hyle  (or  Scaptesyla) 
on  the  Thracian  main.  These  last  in  the  time  of  Darius  yielded  an 
average  annual  product  worth  or  equal  to  80  talents.  The  mines  on 
the  island  did  not  produce  so  much  at  this  period,  although  at  an 
earlier  one  they  had  annually  yielded  between  two  or  three  hundred 
talents. '° 

About  60  miles  S.  S.  E.  of  Cape  Sunium  is  the  island  of  Siphnos, 
which  in  the  time  of  Polycrates  B.C.  580-22  and  perhaps  long  before, 
was  famous  for  its  rich  mines  of  gold  and  silver.  "Their  soil  pro- 
duced both  gold  and  silver  in  such  abundance  that  from  a  tenth  part 
of  their  revenues  they  had  a  treasury  at  Delphos  equal  in  value  to 
(all)  the  riches  which  that  temple  possessed. "  '^  Under  the  Athenian 
supremacy  they  only  paid  3600  drachmas  of  annual  tribute.  In  the 
Roman  period,  time  of  Strabo,  Siphnos  was  noted  for  its  poverty: 
for  says  Pausanias,  speaking  of  the  interval,  "  Afterwards,  their  gold 
mines  were  destroyed  by  an  inundation  of  the  sea."^^ 

Mount  Pangffius  is  in  Thrace  on  the  river  Nestus,  about  200  miles 
W.  N.  VV.  from  Constantinople.  Pliny  says  that  the  gold  mines  in  this 
range  were  opened  by  Cadmus:  indeed  it  is  probable  that  all  the 
mines  of  ancient  Greece  were  opened  by  the  Ph(£nicians,  or  the  Ve- 
netians, before  they  were  worked  by  the  Greeks.  Philip  of  Macedon, 
about  B.  C.  358,  being  informed  that  in  ancient  times  thece  mines 
had  been  productive,  caused  them  to  be  re-opened,  with  the  result 
that  he  obtained  from  them  annually  more  than  a  thousand  talents. 
It  is  from  the  gold  of  Pangjeus  that  he  struck  his  "  philips, "  '^  whose 
type,  during  the  following  century,  was  copied  so  extensively  by  the 
Gauls. 

The  island  of  Samos,  once  called  Cypar-Issa,  is  on  the  west  coast 
of  Asia  Minor  near  the  mouth  of  the  Caystrus  and  ruined  Ephesus. 
It  was  colonized  originally  by  the  Bacchidse,  who  were  presumably 
Phoenicians  or  Venetians,  and  who  on  being  driven  out  of  Samos  by 
the  lonians,  settled  afterward  in  Samothrace.  We  know  little  of  the 
early  history  of  Samos.     Before  the  time  of  Polycrates  it  was  prob- 

'^  Herod.,  Euterpe,  44;  Erato,  46.  Boeckh,  417,  has  a  different  reading  of  this 
passage.  '^Thalia,  57. 

'*  Phocics,  11;  vol.  Ill,  pp.  131,  13S,  151. 
i^Diod.  Sic,  II,  S8. 


GREECE.  49 

ably  the  custom,  and  an  ancient  one,  for  the  island  governor  or  king 
to  throw  each  New  Year  ilay  into  the  sea  a  gold  ring,  an  observance 
out  of  which  the  imaginative  Greeks  wrought  a  marvellous  tale.'* 
The  Samian  mines  were  of  gold  and  silver,  the  ores  of  which  were 
reduced  in  works  situated  on  the  river  Imbrasus.  The  extant  gold, 
silver,  and  electrum  coins  of  Samos  are  numerous.  Some  of  those 
commonly  attributed  to  Sardis,  were  ascribed  by  Sestini  to  Samos. 
Herodotus  reports  that  Polycrates  bought  off  the  Lacedcemonians, 
who  tried  to  deprive  him  of  the  island,  with  a  subsidy  of  lead  coins 
thinly  cased  with  gold,  and  thus  cheaply  got  rid  of  his  unwelcome 
visitors."  The  mines  of  Samos  were  still  worked  in  the  time  of  Theo- 
phrastus,  about  240  B.  C,  for  he  wrote  concerning  them:  "Those 
who  work  in  these  mines  cannot  stand  upright,  but  are  obliged  to  lie 
down  either  on  their  sides  or  backs:  for  the  vein  they  extract  runs 
lengthwise  and  is  only  two  feet  deep,  though  considerably  more  in 
breadth  and  is  enclosed  on  every  side  with  hard  rock.  From  this  vein 
the  ore  is  obtained."  '* 

Mines  of  gold  or  silver  or  both  were  worked  by  the  so-called  Pe- 
lasgians  in  many  parts  of  Greece,  chiefly  in  the  mountains  of  Albania, 
Dalmatia,  Croatia,  Bosnia.  Servia,  Thrace  and  Bulgaria.  The  remains 
of  a  smelting  furnace  composed  of  colossal  hewn  stones,  together 
with  heajis  of  refuse  silver  ores,  can  still  be  seen  in  Albania,  almost 
in  sight  from  the  houses  of  Corfu."  Similar  structures  and  remains 
are  said  to  e.xist  in  Dalmatia.  In  Bosnia  at  Slatnitza,  on  the  road  to 
Scopia,  si.\  miles  from  Traunick,  the  Romans  worked  gold  mines  on 
an  e.xtensive  scale  and  they  were  probably  worked  by  the  Greeks  be- 
fore the  Romans.  There  are  reported  to  be  gold  mines  in  several 
mountains  near  Zvornick  and  Varech.  The  rivers  Bosna,  Verbatch, 
Drina,  and  Latchva  are  auriferous.  Many  silver  mines  have  been 
worked  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rama  or  Prezos,  Foinitca  and  other 
villages,  called  Sreberno,  Srebernik,  or  Srebernitza.  Cinnabar  is  ob- 
tained near  the  convent  of  Chressevo,  and  this  deposit  was  probably 

"Thalia,  41  and  Note  to  Chapter  II  herein.  See  also  "  The  Worship  of  .Augustus 
Cxsar,"  chap,  vii,  sub  anno  B.C.  1200. 

"  Thalia.  56.  '*  De  Lapidibus.  c.  CXIX. 

"The  following  directions  for  reaching  these  mines  were  given  to  us  in  Januar)', 
iSSs.byMaj.  Clen.  Mackenzie:  '  "Co  due  north  from  Corfu  to  .Santa  Quaranta  by  boat, 
then  to  the  Gardiki  I'ass  in  the  mountains,  then  eastward  along  the  southern  slopes 
to  the  ruins  of  the  I'elasgian  smelting  works,  ahitude  about  2500  feet  above  the  sea." 
There  are  also  mining  remains  and  ruins  at  iSutriijlo  which  is  on  the  sea  shore  and 
wliich  drains  the  I'elasgian  works  above.  All  these  remains  are  well  known  to  the  na- 
tives. 


50  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

worked  for  mercury  in  very  ancient  times."  About  B.C.  470  Alex- 
ander, son  of  Amyntas,  possessed  a  mine  near  Lake  Prasis  and  Mt. 
Dysia  in  Macedonia,  which  yielded  him  a  talent  per  diem.'" 

In  Servia  there  were  silver  mines  near  Nova-Berda,  and  (Roman) 
gold  mines  near  Saphina.  Ancient  mines  of  both  gold  and  silver, 
chiefly  the  latter,  exist  in  other  parts  of  Servia,  but  little  is  known 
of  their  early  history.  There  are  some  twenty  thousand  acres  of  al- 
luvions within  fifty  miles  of  Belgrade  which  might  yet  richly  reward 
the  hydraulic  process.  There  is  plenty  of  water  with  good  heads  and 
good  grades  for  the  gravel.  Bulgaria  also  abounds  in  mines  of  the 
precious  metals,  but  like  most  of  those  in  the  territory  comprised 
within  ancient  Greece,  they  have  fallen  to  ruins  and  their  history  is 
forgotten. 

Peter  Belon,  who  visited  the  mines  of  Sidherokapsa,  in  the  middle 
of  the  1 6th  century,  asserts  that  he  found  500  or  600  furnaces  at  work 
in  different  parts  of  the  mountain:  that  besides  silver,  which  was  the 
chief  product,  gold  was  obtained  from  pyrites:  that  the  mines  and 
works  employed  6000  men:  and  that  the  revenue  of  the  Turkish  gov- 
ernment from  the  enterprise  often  amounted  to  30,000  ducats  (say 
;^i5,ooo)  per  month." 

In  many  parts  of  Greece  or  European  Turkey,  where  ancient  mines 
were  worked,  a  superstition  is  said  to  prevent  the  peasants  from  vis- 
iting them.  Malte-Brun  especially  mentions  this  of  the  old  Roman 
mines  near  Traunick,  and  we  have  ourselves  noticed  the  same  super- 
stition in  the  vicinity  of  the  Roman  gold  mines  in  the  Carpathian 
foot-hills.  This  superstition  is  probably  due  to  the  traditions  of  that 
cruel  and  relentless  slavery  to  which  their  forefathers  were  subjected 
by  the  Greek  and  Roman  lords  who  once  owned  these  mines.  Val- 
divia,  writing  to  the  emperor  Charles  V.,  declared  that  every  castel- 
lano  of  gold  from  Peru  cost  a  measure  of  human  blood  and  tears." 
What  was  the  cost  of  gold  to  the  ancient  Romans  or  the  still  more 
ancient  Greeks  it  would  be  hard  to  say:  but  a  human  life  for  every 
ounce  would  probably  be  well  within  the  mark. 

There  are  reasons  for  believing  that  the  interdict  of  the  precious 
metals  ascribed  to  Lycurgus  of  Sparta  was  followed  in  some  of  the 
other  Greek  states.  We  know  that  to  a  certain  extent  this  policy  was 
imitated  in  the  Greek  Colonies,  for  Aristotle  explicitly  informs  us 
that  Clazomenae  (probably  during  the  sixth  century  B.C.)  struck  iron 
money,  whilst  Aristides  of  Hadrianopolis  and  Hesychius  of  Alexan- 

20  Cf.  Malte-Brun,  iv,  118.  "i  Terpsichore,  17. 

^2  Lock,  on  "Gold."  "  Mackenna,  "  Libro  de  Oro." 


GREECE.  51 

dria  both  alhuie  to  the  sidareos  or  iron  money  useil  in  Byzantium  and 
other  portions  of  Greece  and  the  (ireek  Colonies  diirinj^  the  I'elopon- 
nesian  war."*  The  scant  or  fitful  sup[)lies  of  the  precious  metals,  or 
the  apprehension  tliat  the  use  of  them  for  money  was  attended  with 
danger  to  the  state,  or  to  popular  liberty,  wiiatever  the  reason  was 
that  occasionetl  the  interdict  or  the  supplanting  of  these  metals  in 
Greece,  appears  to  have  stimulateil  their  production  in  tlie  colonies; 
for  it  is  at  corresponding  jieriods  that  we  first  hear  those  turgid  ac- 
counts of  the  auriferous  wealth  of  Asia  Minor  which  Greek  literature 
has  transmitted  to  all  time. 

The  gold  dust  which  descends  from  Mount  Tmolus  is  mentioned 
by  Herodotus  in  Clio,  xciii.  This  related  to  the  Pactolus,  about  60 
miles  east  of  Smyrna,  which  Strabo  says  was  the  source  of  Croesus's 
wealth.  Its  importance  as  an  auriferous  stream  has  no  doubt  been 
vastly  e.xaggerated.  At  the  time  of  Herodotus  the  houses  of  Sardis, 
the  capital  of  Lydia,  situated  on  the  Pactolus.  were  built  of  rushes; 
a  sure  sign  of  poverty.  In  the  time  of  Strabo,  and  probably  long  be- 
fore, the  Pactolus  had  ceased  to  yield  any  gold."  About  one  hun- 
dred miles  east  of  the  Pactolus  stood  the  mountain  village  of  Celaenae, 
near  which  rises  the  river  Meander,  in  the  Taurus  range.  In  the  time 
of  Xer.xes,  king  of  Persia,  B.C.  485-65,  there  dwelt  in  CeK-enaj  a  Lydian 
named  Pythius,  son  of  Atys,  ne.xt  to  Xer.xes  himself,  the  richest  of 
all  mankind,  his  wealth  consisting  of  no  less  than  "  two  thousand 
talents  of  silver  and  four  millions,  wanting  only  seven  thousand,  of 
the  gold  staters  of  Darius,"  all  of  which,  beside  his  slaves  and  farms, 
he  freely  offered  to  Xer.xes,  who,  (of  course,)  not  only  declined  the 
princely  gift,  but  gave  Pythius  the  seven  thousand  staters  necessary 
to  make  up  the  even  four  millions."  Those  who  are  fond  of  the  mar- 
vellous will  find  plenty  of  this  sort  of  thing  in  Herodotus  and  the 
modern  commentators,  Larcher,  Jacob,  Rawlinson,  Lock,  etc.  Prac- 
tical experience  of  mining  admonishes  us  to  give  these  tales  but  scant 
credence. 

We  rather  suspect  that  with  regard  to  the  Greek  interdicts  of  the 
precious  metals  and  the  use  of  nummeraries,  we  are  dealing  with  Greek 
fiction,  rather  than  (ireek  history.  After  the  Greeks  hail  been  taught 
the  arts  of  civilized  life,  which  the  Pelasgians  had  fetched  from  Pon- 
tus  and  India,  after  the  former  had  adopted  the  institutes  and  religion 
of  the  latter,  they  turned  upon  their  teachers,  drove  them  from  the 
country  and  usurped  both  their  possessions,  and  their  history.   They 

'^  Aristid.  Oral.  Platon.,  11.  145,  ed.  Jebb;  Hesychius,  v.  Sidareoi. 
"Strabo,  xiii,  iv,  5,  "  Polymnia,  27. 


52  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

changed  the  names  of  their  gods,  they  erected  new  temples  from  the 
Cyclopean  stones  of  the  old,  they  modified  the  laws,  renamed  the 
months  and  perverted  the  history  of  their  benefactors;  so  that  little 
of  it  is  left  to  posterity  beyond  what  has  been  recovered  through  con- 
jecture. The  principal  trade  of  the  Phoenicians,  as  carriers  between 
Asia  and  Europe,  was  spices,  perfumes,  ivory,  jewelry  and  tissues, 
(from  east  to  west,)  and  the  precious  metals  gold,  silver  and  bronze, 
from  west  to  east.  But  whilst  the  Phoenicians  were  both  navigators 
and  miners,  they  were  also  Buddhists;  and  as  such  they  never  used 
the  precious  metals  for  money.  They  used  iron  and  copper  and  per- 
haps bronze,  but  neither  gold  nor  silver.  Hence  the  iron  moneys  of 
Lycurgus  (the  myth)  and  of  Clazomenae  and  Byzantium  may  all  have 
been  Phoenician  institutions  perverted  by  Greek  fancy  and  floated 
down  the  stream  of  time,  to  the  bewilderment  of  antiquarian  research 
and  the  confusion  of  historv. 


CHArTl-.R   \l. 


1  lAIV 


Auriferous  streams — Tiodencus  (To) — Khenus — Tiber — Ancient  mininjj  camps — 
Rome — Hologfna — Turin — The  Tyrrhenians,  or  Etruscans  —  Their  goiii  and  silver 
coins — Principal  mining  regions — Piedmont,  for  gold;  Sardinia,  for  silver;  Temesa, 
for  copper — The  Salassi — Their  conquest  by  Augustus — Ischia — Interdict  of  mining 
by  the  Roman  Senate — Its  motive — Its  Buddhic  or  Bacchic  origin — Enacted  in  An- 
cient India,  China,  Babylon,  Sparta,  and  other  states — Its  probable  a>ra — Mines  of 
Aquileia — Blunders  of  Strabo — I  lis  auriferous  Aquileia  probably  identical  with  Turin 
— The  Italian  agricultural  skeleton — Devastation  of  Lombardy  wrought  by  placer- 
mining — Necessity  of  artificial  irrigation — Accumulation  of  gravel  in  the  valley  of  the 
Po^Raising  of  its  bed — Dykes — Floods — Present  condition  of  gold-mining  in  Italy — 
A  losing  industry — Plundering  more  profitable  than  mining. 

THE  Durias  Major  (Doria  Baltea)  Durias  Minor,  Sessites,  and 
other  Alpine  affluents  of  the  Bodencus  (Eritlanus,  Padus,  or  Po) 
and  their  valleys,  were  anciently  auriferous;  so  were  the  Renus,  Chi- 
ana,  Arno  and  Tiber.'  We  have  ourselves  "i)anned"  gold  from  the 
sands  of  the  upper  Tiber.  From  evidences  which  we  observed  in  fol- 
lowing the  course  of  that  river  upward,  from  the  ancient  works  that 
still  exist  in  Rome  to  Mount  Albanus  and  from  the  results  of  the 
dredging  operations  recently  conducted  in  the  river  near  the  Cajiitol, 
we  are  rather  inclined  to  the  belief  that  Rome  itself  was  originally  a 
mining  camp.  It  may  also  be  conjectured  that  Pononia  (Pologna) 
was  originally  founded  in  connection  with  the  mines  of  Mount  Al- 
banus.' Turin  was  undoubtedly  a  mining  camp.  The  earliest  settlers 
upon  the  Italian  streams,  of  whom  any  account  has  come  down  to  us, 
were  the  Tyrrhenians,  whom  the  Romans  of  a  subseciuent  age  called 
Tusci  or  Etrurians.'    Among  the  cities  built  by  this  nation  were  Ar- 

•  Rhenus.  The  Italians  call  this  river,  the  Reno.  The  Khenus  of  the  Mcnapians 
is  now  called  the  Rhine. 

'  Bononia.  The  Italians  call  this  city  Bologna.  The  Bononia  of  the  Vcncti,  in 
Picardy,  is  now  called  Boulogne.  The  significance  of  these  place-names  has  a  bear- 
ing upon  the  history  of  the  precious  metals.  They  imply  that,  like  America  in  the 
i6th  century  and  Africa  recently,  Europe  was  first  settled  by  races  who  were  in  search 
of  gold.  The  gold  veins  of  Mount  Albanus  were  the  sources  of  the  auriferous  parti- 
cles won  from  the  bed  of  the  Tiber.  Bononia  and  .Mbanus  arc  names  evidently  be- 
stowed by  the  ancient  \'eneti. 

'  Tyrrhenia  probably  is  from  Tyr,  the  Tuscan  Mars,  or  go<l  of  war. 


54  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

retium,  Clusium,  Cosa,  Cortona,  Fsesulae,  Graviscae,  Luna,  Pisas, 
Perugia,  Populonia,  Telamon,  Turino,  Veii,  Venetia,  Vetulonia,  Vil- 
lanova,  Vollaterrje  and  Volscinii.  We  have  Etruscan  gold  coins  of 
Graviscae,  and  Populonia,  Etruscan  silver  coins  of  Fxsulae  and  Popu- 
lonia and  Etruscan  bronze  coins  of  all  these  places.  After  the  river 
washings  and  placers  of  Italy  were  more  or  less  exhausted  of  their 
geological  accumulations  of  gold,  vein  mines  were  opened  by  the 
Tyrrhenians,  both  of  gold,  silver  and  copper.  Gold  quartz  was  found 
chiefly  in  the  Piedmont  country, below  the  Pennine  and  Cottian  Alps; 
silver  was  obtained  chiefly  from  Sardinia;  whilst  copper  mines  were 
opened  in  Calori,  Montegazza,  in  numerous  places  between  Lucca 
and  Volterra,  in  Temesa,  Enna,  (Castro  Giovanni,)  in  Sicily  and  other 
localities.  The  Salassi  dwelt  at  the  source  of  the  Doria  Baltea,  which 
rises  in  the  foothills  of  the  great  St.  Bernard.  Says  Strabo :  (iv,  vi,  7  :) 
"The  country  of  the  Salassi  contains  gold  mines,  of  which  formerly 
in  the  days  of  their  power,  they  were  masters,  as  well  as  of  the  Alpine 
Passes.  The  river  Doria  afforded  them  great  facilities  for  obtaining 
the  metal,  by  supplying  them  with  a  water-head  for  washing  the  gold; 
so  that  they  actually  emptied  the  main  bed  by  the  numerous  ditches 
they  employed  to  draw  the  water  to  distant  places.  This  operation, 
though  profitable  to  miners,  injured  the  agriculturists  below,  as  it 
deprived  them  of  irrigation  from  a  river  which,  by  its  altitude,  was 
capable  of  watering  their  plains.  This  gave  rise  to  frequent  wars  be- 
tween these  tribes,  of  whom,  when  they  fell  beneath  the  arms  of 
Rome,  the  Salassi  lost  both  their  gold  works  and  their  country.  How- 
ever, as  they  continued  to  hold  the  mountains  (and  therefore  the  river- 
heads)  they  sold  water  to  the  (Roman)  lessees  or  contractors  of  the 
gold  mines,  (publicani,)  with  whom  they  had  continual  disputes,  due 
to  the  avidity  of  the  latter.  Hence  the  Roman  military  commanders 
of  the  district  always  had  a  pretext  for  making  war.  Until  recently, 
the  Salassi,  whether  at  peace  or  war  with  the  Romans,  found  frequent 
opportunities,  through  their  control  of  the  passes,  to  inflict  serious 
damage  upon  their  enemies.  They  exacted  from  the  followers  of 
Decimus  Brutus,  on  his  flight  from  Mutina,  (about  B.  C.  43, )  a  drachm, 
(denarius,)  per  man.  Messala,  likewise,  having  taken  up  his  winter 
quarters  in  their  vicinity,  (about  B.  C.  27,)  was  obliged  to  purchase 
from  them  both  timber  for  fuel  and  elm-wood  for  javelins.  On  an- 
other occasion  they  plundered  (a  portion  of)  Caesar's  (military)  treas- 
ure, by  rolling  down  huge  masses  of  rock  upon  the  soldiers,  satirically 
pretending  that  they  were  building  roads  and  bridges.  Afterwards 
Augustus  completely  overthrew  them  and  transported  them  to  Epo- 


ITALY.  55 

redia  (Ivrea)  a  Roman  colony  which  had  been  planted  as  a  bulwark 
against  the  Salassi,  although  its  inhabitants  had  been  able  to  do  but 
little  against  them  until  the  tribe  was  destroyed.*  The  numbers  of 
the  Salassi  were  36,000;  besides  8,000  men  capable  of  bearing  arms. 
Terentius  Varro,  the  general  who  defeated  them,  sold  them  all  as 
captives  at  public  auction.'  Three  thousand  Romans  sent  out  by 
Augustus  founded  the  city  of  Augustus  (Aouste)  on  the  site  of  Varro's 
camp.  Now  the  country,  even  to  the  summit  of  the  mountains,  is  at 
peace." 

Strabo,  (v,  i,  12,)  also  mentions  the  placer  mines  of  Vercelli.  This 
camp  was  on  the  river  Sessites,  about  30  miles  S.  W.  of  Kporedia. 
He  says:  "  The  mines  are  not  worked  now  so  diligently,  because  not 
equally  profitable  with  those  of  Transalpine  Celticaand  Iberia;  "  that 
is  to  say,  of  Gaul  and  Spain.  They  must  have  been  productive  dur- 
ing the  interval  between  the  Civil  Wars  and  the  Empire,  for  Pliny 
says  (xxxiii,  .\.\i,  12):  "  The  publicani  were  forbidden  by  a  censorial 
law  to  employ  more  than  5,000  men"  in  the  mines.  "Men,"  or 
"  hominum,"  here  means  slaves.  The  text  does  not  enable  us  to  say 
whether  each,  or  all,  of  the  publicans  (lessees)  were  forbidden  to 
employ  more  than  "  quinque  millia,"  but  we  take  it  that  cai//  is  meant: 
and  that  there  were  several,  perhaps  many,  publicani.  Strabo  alludes 
(^■.  i^'.  9).  to  the  "  once  productive  goldmines  "  in  the  volcanic  island 
of  Pithecussre  (Ischia)  outside  the  Bay  of  Naples.  They  were  prob- 
ably of  comparatively  little  importance. 

Pliny  in  two  places  (iii,  xxiv,  5  and  xxiii,  21)  alludes  to  an  ancient 
Senatus  Consultum  wliich  forbade  mining  for  the  precious  metals  in 
Italy.  This,  of  course,  was  during  the  Commonwealth  and  more  spe- 
cifically during  the  fourth  and  third  centuries  before  our  xra.  whilst 
the  nummulary  system  of  money  continued  to  preserve  its  integrity. 

As  this  interdict  of  mining  is  of  great  importance  in  the  history  of 
the  precious  metals,  it  may  be  of  advantage  in  this  place  to  allude  to 
its  origin  and  bearing  more  fully  than  has  hitherto  been  done.  There 
are  numerous  examples  of  laws  and  customs  forbidding  mining  fur 
the  precious  metals,  both  in  Asia,  .Vfrica,  Europe  and  America.  The 
earliest  of  them  all  seems  to  be  the  Buddhic  interdict,  which  is  to  be 
found,  probably  in  altered  form,  in  the  Hindu  or  Brahmo-Buddhic 

*  Eporedia  was  on  the  Durias  .Major,  about  30  miles  irom  Rodincomagus  on  the 
Padus.  The  Augustan  trophy  which  commemorated  the  conquest  of  the  mountain 
tribes  is  dated  Trib.  XV,  which,  according  to  Ruggiero,  agrees  with  A.  U.  745-6. 
What  a  lesson  for  th^  Boers  of  South  Africa  ! 

*  The  slavery  of  the  Salassi  was  to  last  for  twenty  years.      Dio. 


56  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

code  of  the  Vinaya,  containing  rules  for  the  discipline  of  the  priests, 
although  one  of  its  parts,  called  Sila,  (to  learn,)  refers  to  the  moral 
duties  of  laj'men.  In  the  Vinaya  the  Sramanas  (sense-tamers)  are 
bound  to  observe  250  ordinances.  Of  these,  ten  are  essential  and 
constitute  what  may  be  termed  the  Ten  Commandments  of  Brahmo- 
Buddhism.  Of  these  commandments  the  last  one  relates  to  our  sub- 
ject. It  is  expressly  forbidden  *' to  receive  precious  metals."  This 
includes  both  gold  and  silver.  The  ordinance  appears  to  be  of  high 
antiquity :  for  traces  of  its  observance  are  to  be  seen  in  all  those  states 
in  which  the  Buddhic,  (or  Bacchic,)  religion  found  lodgment.  A  simi- 
lar ordinance  appears  in  the  ancient  laws  of  China,  Perak,  Coreaand 
Japan,  in  the  laws  of  Sparta,  (tempo  Lycurgus,)  in  those  of  Babylon, 
and,  as  before  remarked,  in  those  of  Italy,  during  the  Roman  Com- 
monwealth. It  was  probably  brought  from  Asia  into  Europe  by  the 
Phoenicians  or  Veneti.  A  like  ordinance  also  appears  in  the  observ- 
ances of  many  of  the  African  and  American  tribes,  as  will  be  seen  on 
referring  to  another  part  of  the  present  work,  where  the  subject  is 
dealt  with  more  at  length.  But  we  take  it,  that  among  these  instances 
of  the  interdict,  some  of  them  were  derived  from  the  Buddhic  law, 
while  others  were  of  comparatively  recent  date  and  were  due  to  the 
remembrance  of  cruelties  exercised  toward  mining-slaves  by  modern 
nations;  for  example,  the  Spaniards,  Portuguese  and  Dutch, in  Amer- 
ica. Similar  cruelties  were  no  doubt  the  cause  of  the  original  Buddhic 
interdict:  but  we  are  here  endeavouring  to  distinguish  between  the 
abandonments  of  mining  which  were  due  to  the  ancient  Buddhic  in- 
terdict and  the  abandonments  due  to  more  recent  circumstances. 
That  the  Buddhic  religion  found  its  way  at  a  remote  date  into  Eu- 
rope is  attested  by  innumerable  circumstances,  such  as  the  use  of 
Buddhic  aeras,  place-names,  the  names  of  gods  {e.  g.  Thammuz  and 
Nissus,  in  the  Hebrew  scriptures,)  the  names  of  the  months  and  days, 
the  sacred  symbols  of  the  Phoenicians  and  Venetians;  the  explicit 
statements  of  Herodotus,  Pliny  and  other  ancient  writers;  the  ob- 
servance of  Buddhic  institutes;  (such  as  the  interdiction  of  ecclesi- 
astical privileges,  social  caste  and  slavery;)  the  preservation  of  Budd- 
hic rites  and  festivals;  the  appearance  of  Buddhic  symbols  on  ancient 
monuments;  and  other  matters  mentioned  in  the  researches  of  mod- 
ern writers.  Hence  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  interdictions 
enforced  by  Lycurgus  and  by  the  Romans  of  the  Commonwealth,  no 
matter  what  fanciful  reasons  have  since  been  assigned  for  them, 
either  by  ancient  or  modern  writers,  were  due  in  fact  to  superstitious 
veneration  for  that  Buddhic  or  Bacchic  religion  which  originated  in 


ITALY.  57 

India  and  fonnd  its  way  westward  many  centuries  before  the  christian 
arra  and  centuries  even  before  that  second  "  incarnation  "  of  Buddha, 
which  tlie  Cingalese  are  made  to  assign  to  the  sixth  century  before 
our  a;ra. 

Nothing  less  than  a  law  of  high  antiquity  and  clothed  with  sacer- 
dotal authority  will  serve  to  explain  the  numerous  instances  of  the 
voluntary  abandonment  of  mining  in  very  ancient  times,  which  ap- 
pear in  other  parts  of  this  work  ;  and  nothing  less  than  religious  ven- 
eration can  explain  the  aversion  to  mining  for  the  precious  metals 
which  still  prevails  in  lUuldhic  States,  for  example,  in  Ladak,  Ceylon, 
China,  Perak  and  Corea.  Such  being  the  case,  and  remembering 
Pliny's  remark  (iii,  xxiv,  5)  that  Italy  is  naturally  rich  in  the  precious 
metals,  it  is  not  too  much  to  regard  the  ancient  Senatus  Consultum, 
in  reference  to  mining  for  the  precious  metals,  as  having  had  a  sacer- 
dotal origin.  Should  this  conclusion  be  verified,  the  interdict  of  min- 
ing mentioned  by  Pliny  must  be  assigned  to  the  earliest  period  of 
Rome,  nay,  it  may  even  be  carried  backward  to  the  a;ra  of  the  Tyrr- 
henians or  Etruscans,  from  whom  Rome  obtained  much  of  its  civili- 
zation and  religion.  On  the  other  hand,  should  it  be  due  to  any  other 
cause  than  religion,  the  Senatorial  interdict  will  most  likely  have  to 
be  assigned  to  the  period  of  the  nummulary  system  of  money. 

Says  Strabo  (iv,  vi,  12):  "  Polybius  tells  us  that  in  his  time,  (about 
B.C.  140,)  the  gold  mines  were  so  rich  about  Acpiileia,  but  especially 
in  the  countries  of  the  Taurici  Xorici,  that  if  you  dug  but  two  feet 
below  the  surface  you  found  gold  and  that  the  diggings  (generally) 
were  not  deeper  than  fifteen  feet.  In  some  instances  the  gold  was 
found  pure,  in  pellets  about  the  size  of  a  bean  and  which  diminished 
in  the  fire  only  about  one-eighth;  in  other  instances,  though  requiring 
more  fusion,  the  gold  was  still  very  profitable.  Certain  Italians  aid- 
ing the  Barbarians  in  working  (the  mines,)  in  the  space  of  two  months 
the  value  of  gold  was  diminished  throughout  the  whole  of  Italy  by 
one-third." 

The  fragments  of  Polybius  which  still  survive  do  not  contain  this 
passage,  so  that  it  cannot  be  verified  by  comparison  with  the  original. 
However,  there  are  several  errors  of  fact  in  the  quotation.  There 
are  no  gold  mines  near  the  Aquileia  of  Strabo's  time,  a  place  situated 
near  the  mouth  of  the  river  Taurus,  in  Venetia.  This  stream  has  its 
source  in  the  Carnicaean  Alps,  which  separate  its  valley  from  Xoricum 
(Corinthia).  The  country  of  the  Taurici  Xorici  was  drained  by  this 
stream.  It  is  destitute  of  any  remains  of  gold  mines  of  more  im- 
portance than  river-washings.      However,  there  were  Roman  gold 


58  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

placers  on  the  affluents  of  the  Drave;  and  still  further  to  the  north- 
eastward there  are  extensive  openings  in  the  Carpathian  mountains 
which  were  originally  worked  by  the  lesiges  Metanastes  and  after- 
wards by  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  The  writer  has  personally  exam- 
ined some  of  these  openings  and  studied  the  geology  of  the  country, 
without  being  able  to  find  in  either  of  them  any  distinct  corrobora- 
tion of  Strabo's  statements. 

As  Polybius  (11,  2)  locates  the  Taurini  (not  Taurici)  in  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Alps  above  the  plains  of  Piedmont,  it  is  included  in  the 
auriferous  country  already  described.  In  case  the  Taurini  were  meant. 
(in  place  of  the  Taurici,)  then  the  Aquileia  of  Strabo  was  the  min- 
ing camp  successively  called  Colonia  Julia  and  Augusta  Taurinorum, 
now  the  great  city  of  Turin.  Placer-gold,  such  as  Strabo  mentions 
of  Aquileia,  does  not  require  to  be  submitted  to  fusion.  It  is  impos- 
sible that  pure  placer-gold,  such  as  he  describes,  should  lose  an  eighth 
by  fire.  In  B.C.  218  and  in  206  the  value  of  gold  (to  silver)  was  fixed 
by  the  law  of  Rome  at  i  for  10 ;  and  this  continued  until  B.  C.  84,  when 
Sylla  lowered  it  to  i  for  9.  At  these  rates  it  was  bought  and  coined 
by  the  mints.  This  interval  covers  the  period  alluded  to  by  Strabo, 
during  which  time  it  was  just  as  impossible  for  the  value  of  gold  in 
silver  to  have  diminished  throughout  the  whole  of  Italy  by  one-third, 
as  it  would  be  to-day,  through  the  discovery  or  working  of  any  num- 
ber of  gold  mines,  however  rich.  /If  by  *'  the  value  of  gold  "  is  meant 
the  general  level  of  prices,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  period 
alluded  to  by  Strabo  was  that  of  the  Second  Punic  War,  when  Han- 
nibal was  in  Italy,  in  possession  of  the  entire  mining  region  of  Pied- 
mont and  when  great  fluctuations  of  prices  occurred,  both  from  mil- 
itary, currency,  and  other  causes,  not  connected  with  the  production 
of  gold.  It  is  quite  time  that  history  and  Strabo's  oft-repeated  error 
should  part  company. 

No  one  who  has  examined  the  auriferous  region  of  Piedmont  and 
sailed  down  the  great  river  of  Italy  can  doubt  that  the  former  was 
mined  and  the  latter  deranged,  by  a  people  more  ancient  than  the 
Romans.  These  could  only  have  been  the  Tyrrhenians.  But,  if  as  we 
have  herein  ventured  to  surmise,  the  religion  of  this  ancient  people 
forbade  the  receiving  of  precious  metals,  how  is  such  an  hypothesis  to 
be  reconciled  with  their  great  activity  in  mining?  Precisely  as  it  is 
reconciled  to-day  in  Tibet.  The  religions  of  this  country  are  Dalai- 
Lamaism  in  Great  Tibet  and  Brahmo-Buddhism  in  Little  Tibet.  Both 
of  these  religions  are  corrupted  forms  of  Buddhism.  In  the  last  named 
region  the  inhabitants  refuse  to  mine  for  gold:  in  the  former,  they 


ITALY.  59 

evince  no  such  aversion.  The  religion  of  the  Basena,  or  Tyrrhenians, 
was  also  a  corrupted  Buddhism;  for,  with  numerous  undoubtedly 
Buddhic  elements,  it  included  caste  and  ecclesiastical  privilege,  both 
of  which  institutes  were  unknown  to  Buddhism  proper.  When  the 
Romans  conquered  Tyrrhenia  they  adopted  these  and  many  other  in- 
stitutes of  the  conquered.  When  afterwards  the  Romans  overthrew 
their  own  monarchy  and  erected  a  Republic  in  its  place,  they  swept 
away  privilege  and  caste,  and  reverted  to  the  purer  form  of  Buddhism, 
or  Bacchism.  This  view  would  account  for  the  Senatorial  interdict 
of  the  precious  metals.* 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Romans  began  their  accumula- 
tions of  the  precious  metals  by  mining  for  them.  In  fact  they  began 
by  plundering  them.  It  was  not  until  after  they  hatl  gathered  all  the 
spoil  which  the  surrounding  states  of  Italy  afforded  them,  that  they 
fell  to  mining;  indeed,  it  was  not  until  after  the  spoils  of  Tarentum 
had  found  their  way  to  the  jewelers,  the  temples  and  the  grave,  that 
gold-ming  became  systematic.  But  mining  is  slow  work  compared 
with  plundering;  and  the  Romans  soon  discovered  the  superior  pro- 
ductiveness of  the  latter.  In  another  portion  of  the  present  work  the 
reader  will  be  able  to  trace  the  measure  of  their  success. 

Formerly  the  government  worked  some  of  the  mines,  as  those  of 
.Magna  in  the  valley  of  the  Sesia,  where  there  is  a  group  of  interest- 
ing veins;  but  gold  mining  in  Italy  has  generally  been  left  to  private 
enterprise.  According  to  the  mining  laws  of  Upper  Italy,  quartz 
mines,  being  considered  res  nullius,  (belonging  to  nobody)  are  the 
object  of  concessions,  granted  gratis  by  the  government,  to  those 
willing  to  take  them,  precedence  being  given  to  the  discoverer. 
More  than  60  localities  are  known  where  operations  have  been  under- 
taken, generally  on  government  concessions,  but  a  greater  part  of 
these  have  been  abandoned  as  unprofitable.  There  remain  some  20 
or  25  concessions  in  force;  although  the  number  of  mines  actually 
at  work  does  not  exceed  8  or  10.  Alluvions  of  auriferous  sands  be- 
long in  Piedmont  to  the  owner  of  the  soil,  a  provision  of  some  an- 
tiquity and  one  that  was  probably  designed  to  save  the  agricultural 
bottoms  from  being  covered  with  mining  debris. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  ileranged  regimen  of  the  river  of 

•  For  authorities  on  Etruscan  mines  and  coins,  consult  Calori,  in  London  .Anthropo- 
logical Review,  (paper  by  J.Barnard  Davis.  1863  to  1870);  Montegazza,  1S67  to  1872; 
Blacas"  Mommsen,  II.  213.  234.  372,  375,  379,  389;  Dickinson's  Mommsen;  Burton's 
Castellien  of  Istria,  Anthropologia.  pp.  59  and  376;  Denis,  or  Dennis,  on  Etruria; 
Isaac  Taylor;  R.  S.  Charnock;  Livy,  v,  33  and  54. 


6o  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Italy.  In  the  plains  of  Lombardy,  ancient  grape-vines  have  been 
found,  buried  in  sand  and  clinging  to  elm-trees,  many  feet  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  soil.  In  other  places  vast  heaps  of  bricks,  denoting 
the  former  level  of  the  plains,  have  been  unearthed  many  feet  below 
the  present  surface.  From  the  Dora  Baltea  to  Ciglione,  and  from 
Milan  to  Pavia,  there  are  enormous  tracts  of  gravel.  The  valleys  of 
the  Sesia,  Tesino  and  other  afifiuents  of  the  Po,  are  covered  with 
gravel  wastes,  brought  down  in  ancient  times  from  the  gold  mines. 
Lower  down,  what  the  traveller  sees  is  the  loamy  covering  which  hu- 
man industry  has  spread  over  the  entire  plain  of  Lombardy.  What 
he  fails  to  see  is  a  substratum  of  gravel,  that  drains  the  rain-water 
from  the  roots  of  plants  and  necessitates  continual  irrigation  by  arti- 
ficial means.  This  gravel,  from  the  gold  mines  of  antiquity,  is  the 
skeleton  that  still  lingers  in  the  Italian  agricultural  closet.  In  the 
main  river  itself  the  accumulations  of  gravel  are  so  vast  that  in  some 
places  the  bed  has  been  raised  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  above  the  ad- 
joining plains  and  the  stream  has  had  to  be  sustained  by  dykes  of 
the  most  solid  construction.  In  flood  time  the  river  hangs  suspended 
over  the  cities  and  cultivated  lands  of  this  fair  region,  threatening 
both  with  destruction. 

The  present  condition  of  mining  in  Italy  can  be  disposed  of  very 
briefly.  In  1869  there  were  twelve  quartz  gold  mines  operating  in  the 
province  of  Novara  and  two  in  Alessandria,  besides  four  others  that 
had  been  recently  worked  and  abandoned.  The  fourteen  going  mines 
and  their  reduction  works  employed  722  artisans  and  labourers,  at 
an  annual  cost  of  302,421  lire,  or  francs.  The  total  value  of  the  gold 
produced  was  236,331  lire;  so  that,  as  in  many  other  gold-mining  dis- 
tricts, the  gold  obtained  cost,  for  labour  alone,  more  than  it  was 
worth;  to  say  nothing  of  the  outlay  for  plant  and  other  expenses.  In 
1877  the  value  of  the  annual  product  of  gold,  in  Italy,  was  257,400 
lire;  in  1884,  475,170  lire;'  in  1900,  900,000  lire.  Most  of  the  mines 
are  owned  by  English  companies,  which  are  managed,  (or  misman- 
aged,) in  London. 

''  The  Statistico  Italiano  for  1884  adds  590,000  lire  worth  of  gold  from  amalgama- 
ting establishments;  but  this  appears  to  be  the  same  gold  previously  credited  to  ores. 
The  value  of  the  silver  product  of  the  year  is  given  at  2,238,000  lire.  In  1900  it  was 
about  5,000,000  lire,  coining  value. 


6i 


CHAPTER  VII. 


SPAIN      AND      GAUL. 


Theories  of  Homer  and  Strabo  regarding  the  discovery  of  F.rj'thia,  Iberia,  or  Spain 
—  Its  a-ra— Mines  of  the  (iuadalquiver — Conquest  of  Spain  by  the  Carthaginians — 
Gold  gravel  mines — Water-wheels — Hydraulic  tunnels — Silver  mines  of  Turdetania 
— Tin — Ciold  placer  mining  distinguished  the  earlier,  while  silver  mining  marked  the 
later  Carthaginian  epochs — Influence  upon  Carthage — Bebulo— New  Carthage — 
Carteia — Capture  of  Saguntum — Second  Punic  War — Conquest  of  Spain  by  the 
Romans — Renewed  attack  upon  its  mines — Sacrifice  of  slave  life — River  washings, 
gravel-banks  and  quartz  mines — Ancient  gold  mines  of  Asturias — Sierra  Nevada — 
List  of  mines — Mode  of  draining  deep  quartz  mines — Mode  of  working  the  gravel 
mines — Description  of  LasMedulas — Slaves — llyraulic  methods — Sluicing — Booming- 
— Devastation  described  by  Pliny — Modern  mining  in  Spain — Mines  of  Gaul — River 
washings — Rhone — Isere — Hautes  Alpes — Garonne — Finistere — Silver  mines  of  the 
Narbonnais — Opulence  of  the  .\r\erni — Mode  of  displaying  it — Roman  mints  at 
Lyons — Coinage  ratio — Gaul  comparatively  poor  in  mines — Tribute  imposed  by 
Julius  Casar — His  plunder  of  Lusitania  and  Gaul — Plunder  of  the  Roman  Treasury. 

STRABO  declares  that  the  expedition  of  Ulysses  was  directed  to 
Iberia  and  that  the  Odyssey  and  Iliad  of  Homer,  though  both  are 
fabulous,  were  based  upon  facts  gleaned  from  actual  voyages  of  the 
Phoenicians  to  that  country.  In  the  same  category  of  fables  he  places 
"  the  wanderings  of  Antenor  and  the  Veneti."  The  last  sentence  ap- 
pears to  be  a  mere  play  upon  the  words  Phoenician  and  Venetian.  So 
far  as  can  be  ascertained,  the  Venetians,  who  had  been  driven  from  the 
Euxine  to  the  /Egean  and  Adriatic,  made  voyages  and  left  traces  all 
along  the  Mediterancan,  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Ebrus,  which  river 
they  ascended,  in  search  of  the  gold  deposits  of  Asturias,  Leon  and 
Galicia.  At  a  later  period  their  voyages  embraced  the  entire  coasts 
of  Spain.  Some  of  the  places  they  founded  and  named  were  credited 
by  the  Greeks  to  the  Plucnicians  (sometimes  to  the  Phocxns),  and 
among  the  "fables  "  built  upon  the  assumed  discoveries  of  the  latter 
is  here  classed  the  only  fact  which  is  to  be  discerned  in  the  whole 
matter,  namely,  the  voyages  of  the  Venetians. 

"The  Phocaens  are  the  people  who  discovered  the  Adriatic  and 
Tyrrhenian  Seas  and  Iberia  and  Tartessus"  says  Homer.  *' I  repeat, " 
says  Strabo,  "that  the  Phoenicians  were  the  discoverers  (of  those 
countries)  for  they  possessed  the  better  part  of  Iberia  and  T.ibya  be- 


62  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

fore  the  time  of  Homer,  and  continued  master  of  those  places  until 
their  Empire  was  overthrown  by  the  Romans."  If  we  regard  the 
Venetians  and  Phoenicians  as  one  people,  all  this  hair-splitting  dis- 
appears; and  one  they  almost  certainly  were.  For  the  purposes  of 
the  present  work  it  indeed  is  of  little  consequence  whether  the 
Phoenicians  or  the  Venetians  discovered  the  mines  of  Spain  and 
Gaul:  so  few  details  of  their  achievements  have  Greek  and  Roman 
perversion  permitted  to  survive.  As  to  the  claim  made  on  behalf  of 
the  Phociens  we  consign  it  to  the  company  of  Geryon  and  his  wonder- 
ful oxen.  ' 

We  learn  from  Stesichorus  that  the  Guadalquiver,  called  by  the 
Romans,  Btetis,  was  known  to  earlier  times  as  "The  silver-bedded 
Tart-Essus,"  and  that  the  country  through  which  it  flowed,  indeed 
the  entire  Peninsular,  was  called  Erythia.  Tart-Essus  is  spelled  by 
Eratosthenes  as  Tart-Essis.  It  may  be  a  corruption  of  Taat-Essis. 
Erythia  is  probably  a  corruption  of  Eric-thia.  Acquaintance  by  the 
Venetians  or  Phoenicians  with  the  iron  and  copper  mines  of  Rio 
Tinto,  and  the  silver  mines  of  Guadalquiver,  betokens  some  earlier 
acquaintance  with  the  gold  alluvions  of  Spain.  ^  In  fact  the  gravel 
of  all  the  rivers  of  Iberia  and  Lusitania,  for  they  are  all  auriferous, 
must  have  been  washed  for  gold  by  some  people  from  Asia  Minor  not 
long  after  the  period  assigned  to  Troja  Capta. 

In  the  fifth  century  before  our  sera  Spain  passed  into  the  mili- 
tary possession  of  the  Carthaginians,  from  whom,  through  Greek  or 
Roman  channels,  we  gain  details  of  the  mines.  Herodotus,  Aristotle, 
Posidonius,  Polybius,  Strabo.  Pliny  and  others  have  each  contributed 
:"something  to  the  subject. 

Posidonius,  B.  C.  135-50,  informs  us  that  anciently  in  Spain  silver 
was  discovered  accidently.  The  forests  took  fire  and  melted  some 
of  the  ore  in  which  the  precious  metal  was  imbedded.  This  is  not 
at  all  improbable,  for  it  has  happened  in  other  countries.    Discours- 

'  Herodotus,  i,  163,  says  that  the  Phocsens  discovered  Iberia. 

^  The  Rio  Tinto  mines  were  worked  by  the  Phoenicians,  and  afterwards  by  the 
Romans,  Moslems,  and  Spaniards.  In  1S73  they  were  sold  by  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment to  a  British  Company,  who  now  annually  extract  one  million  tons  of  ores,  two- 
thirds  of  which  are  quarried  and  the  remainder  taken  from  under-ground.  About  one- 
fourth  of  the  whole  product  is  exported,  chiefly  to  England  and  the  remainder  treated 
at  the  mines.  From  the  latter  were  produced  in  18S1  ten  thousand  tons  of  metallic 
copper,  which  was  sent  to  England,  and  seven  thousand  tons  of  iron,  chiefly  to  the 
United  States.  The  mines  and  works  employ  10,500  men,  and  a  vast  amount  of 
machinery,  including  25  locomotives,  and  six  miles  of  precipitating  tanks,  etc.  Lon- 
don Mining  Journal,  May  13,  18&2. 


SPAIN    AND    GAUL.  63 

ing  on  the  diligence  of  the  miners,  he  applies  to  them  the  remark  of 
Demetrius  of  Phalaris,  who,  speaking  of  the  silver  mines  of  Attica, 
(Laurium)  said  the  men  there  dug  with  as  nun  h  energy  as  if  they 
thought  they  could  dig  up  Plutus  himself.  '  But  he  regarded  the 
Roman  miners  as  much  more  efficient  than  the  Greeks.  The  men 
who  dug  in  Laurium  were  slaves  and  so  were  tiiose  who  dug  in  Iberia. 
Their  energy  was  not  due  to  any  thought  of  digging  up  Plutus,  but 
to  fear  of  the  lash,  which  their  cruel  masters  held  over  them.  It  was 
the  Roman  skill  which  guided  them,  that  Posidonius  contrasts  with 
Greek  ignorance  or  indifference.  "In  Turdetania,"  says  Posidonius, 
"the  streams  are  drained  by  means  of  Egyptian  screws,  which  empty 
the  water  into  deep  and  tortuous  tunnels.  These  tunnels  are  cut  into 
the  auriferous  gravel-banks  so  that  the  water  may  break  them  down." 
The  writer  saw  one  of  these  water-tunnels,  still  existing  in  the  an- 
ciently worked  gravel-bank  of  Las  Medulas,  in  Leon. 

The  river  Minho  which  rises  in  the  mountains  of  Asturias  and  flows 
through  Portugal  to  the  sea,  was  the  centre  of  very  extensive  mining 
operations  on  the  part  of  the  Romans.  It  drains  the  great  placers  of 
Gallicia,  Asturias,  Leon  and  Portugal,  and  is  the  river  whose  debris, 
according  to  Pliny,  had  shoaled  the  harbours  and  altered  the  sea 
coasts  of  Spain.  Its  principal  affluents  are  the  Sil,  Duerna  and 
Dourro.  upon  or  near  which  are  situated  not  only  the  alluvions  above 
referred  to,  but  also  numerous  quartz  mines  which  were  worked  by 
the  ancients  and  are  now  water-logged  and  abandoned  to  the  bats 
and  the  snakes. 

The  Portuguese  name  of  Minho  and  the  Spanish  name  of  Minio 
are  from  the  Latin  minium,  or  cinnabar,  a  red  ore,  from  which  is  ex- 
tracted the  Vermillion  of  the  toilet-table  and  the  mercury  or  quick- 
silver of  the  sluice-bo.x.  Technically,  it  is  the  red  sulphuret  of  mer- 
cur)-,  to  which  the  Phoenicians  or  Venetians  gave  the  name  of  sinople, 
sinoper,  or  sinopite,  from  Sinope,  in  Pontus,  near  which  place  they 
evidently  had  found  deposits  of  this  ore.  This  word  has  survived  to 
the  present  time  as  a  synonym  for  red  lead.  The  river  Minho  was 
evidently  given  its  name  either  because  its  waters  were  of  a  reddish 
colour,  or  else  because  deposits  of  cinnabar  were  founil  in  the  dis- 
tricts which  it  drained,  both  of  which  circumstances  characterize  the 
Minho.  There  was  anciently  a  river  Minio,  now  the  Mignone,  in 
Etruria,  whose  name  was  doubtless  derived  from  similar  circum- 
stances. 

The  country  drained  by  the  Minho  and  its  affluents  bears  marks 
*  Mrabo,  ill,  ii.  »;. 


64  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

of  having  been  mined  by  successive  races  ot  people,  Phoenicians^ 
Carthaginians,  Greelcs,  Romans,  Arabs  and  Christians,  each  of  whom 
had  their  own  peculiar  modes  of  working,  so  that  the  attentive  ob- 
server is  able  to  distinguish  them.  The  difference  between  the 
Roman  workings  and  those  which  preceded  or  followed  them  can  be 
learnt  with  ease:  but  it  is  often  difficult  to  decide  concerning  prior 
workings,  whether  they  are  Greek,  Carthaginian  or  Phoenician.  The 
presence  of  reptiles  in  the  old  quartz  workings,  which  the  writer  ex- 
amined near  Ponferrada,  rendered  inspection  difficult,  but  he  is  in- 
clined to  the  opinion  that  these  mines  were  worked  for  gold  before 
the  Roman  period,  by  either  the  Carthaginians  or  Phoenicians,  and 
possibly  by  both  nations.  On  the  other  hand,  the  earlier  marks 
upon  the  alluvions  are  effaced;  those  which  remain  being  clearly- 
Roman,  medieval  and  modern.  The  ditch-line  in  slate-rock  from 
Mount  Teleno,  the  drift  works  on  the  Duerna,  the  gravel  banks  of 
Las  Medulas  and  the  booming  apparatus  on  the  Sil,  are  clearly 
Roman;  the  remaining  works  may  be  Arabian. 

After  breaking  down  the  bank  by  the  means  above  alluded  to,  the 
gravel  was  run  into  sluice-boxes  and  treated  in  the  ordinary  way. 
The  dump  was  "boomed"  off  with  the  waters  of  an  artificial  lake. 
In  the  silver  mines  of  Turdetania  "  one  person  has  taken  as  much  as 
an  Euboean  talent ;  "  meaning  probably  so  much  per  day.  If  "talent" 
here  means  not  a  weight  but  a  sum  of  money,  it  contained  in  Attica, 
in  the  time  of  Posidonius,  7620  grains  of  silver,  equal  in  value, 
when  coined,  to  5  gold  staters;  each  of  the  latter  containing  about 
the  same  quantity  of  fine  metal  as  a  modern  guinea,  or  $5  piece:  in 
short,  $25  worth  of  silver.  If  a  talent  weight  is  meant,  it  equalled 
half  a  hundredweight  of  silver,  or  say  double  as  much  as  $25  worth. 
In  neither  case  is  the  statement  incredible,  but  it  proves  nothing 
concerning  the  richness  of  the  mines;  for  the  poorest  mines  may  con- 
tain lumps  of  native  silver  and  the  richest  ones  none  at  all.  The 
copper  ore  of  the  Turdetanians,  continues  Posidonius,  was  one- 
fourth  pure.  Tin,  he  continues,  is  produced  in  Artabria  (Gallicia) 
as  well  as  in  the  Cassiterides.  Thus  far  we  can  follow  our  author. 
But  when  he  tell  us  that  in  Gallacia  "the  earth  is  powdered  with 
silver,  and  tin  and  white  gold,  (that  is,  gold  mixed  with  silver,)  the 
gravel  (containing  it)  having  been  brought  down  by  the  rivers,"  we 
prefer  to  draw  the  line.  •*  Neither  in  Gallacia  nor  any  where  else 
was  the  earth  ever  powdered  with  silver,  or  tin,  or  white  gold;  nor 
have  the  rivers  borne  gravel  containing  electrum. 
*  Posidonius,  in  Strabo,  iii,  ii,  9. 


SPAIN     AND    CALL.  65 

In  ihe  time  of  the  Socratian  dialogue,  imputed  to  /Eschines,  a  work 
of  probably  the  fifth  century  before  our  a^ra,  Carthage  used  a  numer- 
ary  money;  after  its  conquest  of  Iberia,  its  mercenary  troops  were 
paid  in  gold  coins.  These  circumstances  indicate  that  Carthaginian 
milling  in  Spain  was  for  a  lengthy  period  chiefly  placer  mining.  The 
conquest  of  this  easily  found  gold  "had  bewitched  her  people,  as 
it  afterwards  bewitched  the  Romans  and  as  that  of  America  at  a 
later  period  bewitched  the  Spaniards.  Nothing  was  thought  of  but 
rich  mines,  sudden  wealth  and  the  conquest  of  the  world. 
In  B.  C.  146,  when  Carthage  is  said  to  have  been  sacked  and  demol- 
ished by  Scipio  Africanus  the  Younger,  all  the  silver  found  in  the 
city  (no  gold  at  all  is  mentioned)  amounted  to  a  trifle  less  than  two 
tons  in  weight,  the  net  results  of  an  empire,  which,  after  having  at- 
tained the  ripe  age  of  six  centuries,  obliterated  itself  forever  through 
a  mistake  of  monetary  policy."  '' 

In  B.  C.  238,  Hamilcar  Barca,  without  authority  from  his  govern- 
ment, conducted  a  marauding  expedition  through  Spain  and  sought 
to  justify  his  conduct  with  the  Carthaginian  authorities  by  contend- 
ing that  the  extension  of  their  arms  into  the  interior  was  necessary 
in  order  to  make  good  the  loss  of  the  mines  in  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and 
Corsica;  an  argument  that  discloses  the  great  importance  which  was 
now  attached  to  the  silver  mines  and  the  chagrin  felt  for  the  loss  of 
those  in  the  Italian  islands.  Strabo  says  that  Hamilcar  found  that 
the  Turdetanians  used  silver  goblets  and  casks.  If  the  remark  is 
confined  to  the  Turdetanian  mine-owners  we  may  credit  the  silver 
goblets,  but  the  silver  casks  were  probably  flasks,  or  else  they  existed 
only  in  Strabo's  imagination.  However,  it  is  safe  to  believe  that 
Hamilcar  seized  them  all.  In  237  Hamilcar  died,  leaving  to  his  son 
Hannibal,  then  but  eight  or  nine  years  of  age,  the  heritage  of  an 
undying  hatred  to  Rome.  In  228  the  Roman  frontier  in  the  Nar- 
bonnais  and  Spain  had  advanced  south-westward  to  the  Iberus. 
Hannibal  now  strenghened  himself  in  Spain  by  sacking  the  native 
cities  and  capturing  the  mines.  Among  others  was  a  silver  mine 
called  Bebulo,  which  is  said  to  have  supplied  him  with  300  pounds 
weight  of  silver  daily.  This  mine  is  now  known  to  be  the  same 
with  the  modern  Guadalcanal,  in  Cordova.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  means  employed  for  obtaining  the  silver  was  slavery.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  conquered  cities  were  thrust  into  the  mines  and 
compelled  to  produce  silver  under  the  penalty  of  death,  or  torture. 
It  was  at  this  period  that  the  silver  mines  near  New  Carthage  were 
'  "  History  of  Money  in  Ancient  States,"  first  ed.,  p.  175. 


66  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

discovered  and  the  city,  or  mining-camp,  of  that  name  was  founded 
by  Asdrubal,  the  brother-in-law  of  Hannibal,  Asdrubal  died  in  220 
and  in  the  same  year  Hannibal  stormed,  sacked,  and  put  to  the 
sword,  Carteia,  a  wealthy  city  and  capital  of  the  Olcades.  This  city 
was  in  the  bay  of  Calpe  (Gibraltar)  nearly  where  stands  the  modern 
San  Roque.  It  was  founded  by  the  Phoenicians  or  Venetians  under 
the  name  of  Tartessus "  or  as  renamed  by  the  Greeks,  Heraclea; 
refounded  by  the  Carthaginians  as  Carteia;  and  subsequently  oc- 
cupied by  the  Olcades,  a  native,  or  else  a  mixed  race.  Nearly  two 
centuries  after  Hannibal's  exploit  Carteia  was  plundered  by  Julius 
Caesar.  The  writer  possesses  four  bronze  coins,  exhumed  about  the 
year  1830  from  the  ruins  of  this  city,  part  of  which  ruins  now  lie 
under  the  waters  of  the  bay.  One  has  the  legend  "  Irippo  ;  "  another, 
"Carteia;"  one  is  two  much  worn  to  decipher;  and  one  is  of  the 
mintage  of  Caesar,  about  B.  C.  50. 

In  the  following  year,  B.  C.  219,  Hannibal  captured  and  sacked 
Saguntum,  now  Murviedro,  a  Greek  colonial  city  of  Spain,  sending 
the  spoil  captured  here  and  elsewhere  to  Carthage,  there  to  appease 
the  authorities,  win  the  populace,  purchase  supplies,  and  engage 
fresh  troops  for  further  operations.  However,  the  capture  of  Sagun- 
tum afforded  the  Romans  a  pretext  for  hostilities;  and  in  218  began 
that  memorable  contest,  the  Second  Punic  War,  which  ended  in 
207  with  the  Roman  conquest  of  Spain  and  in  202  with  the  downfall 
of  Carthage. 

Spain  was  to  the  ancients  what  Mexico  and  Central  and  South 
America  became  in  later  ages  to  the  Spaniards;  the  Dorado,  the  rich- 
est mining  country  in  the  world,  the  place  where,  after  the  country 
was  plundered,  the  metals  gold  and  silver  were  found  in  the  greatest 
abundance,  and  where  they  could  be  procured  by  the  forced  labour 
of  captives  and  slaves.  The  fate  of  its  aboriginal  inhabitants,  the 
subsequent  struggles  among  the  leading  nations  for  the  mastery  of 
its  precious  metals,  the  destruction  of  its  forests  and  diversion  of 
its  water-courses  for  the  purposes  of  the  mines,  the  consequent  ex- 
posure of  its  soil  to  drought  and  devastation,  the  neglect  of  agri- 
culture in  the  absorbing  and  senseless  pursuit  of  gold  and  silver  and 
the  resulting  poverty  and  backwardness  of  its  population — both 
aboriginal  and  colonial — all  these  can  be  read  by  the  nearer  pictures 
which  are  accessible  to  us  of  Mexico  and  Peru. 

At  the  period  of  the  Roman  conquest  of  Spain,  the  metallic  de- 
posits, except  near  the  coast,  had  hardly  been  touched.      The  prin- 

*  Strabo,  III,  ii,  14. 


SPAIN     AND    CALL.  67 

cipal  gold  mining  was  still  that  of  the  placers.  Says  Strabo,  iii,  ii,  8: 
"At  the  present  day  more  gold  is  procured  by  washing,than  by  digging 
it  from  the  (quartz)  mines."  Henceforth  we  shall  find  its  mines, 
both  alluvion  and  quartz,  worked  with  the  energy  of  madness.  The 
valleys  and  bottoms  of  the  Guadalciuiver,  '  Ciuadiana,  Tagus,  Mon- 
dego,  Duero,  and  Minho,  the  great  alluvions  of  Gallicia  and  the 
gold  alluvions  and  quartz  mines  of  Turdetania,  where  Caesar  after- 
wards "filled  his  coffers,"  the  mines  of  Bastetania,  Cotinai  (Cotillas, 
or  perhaps  Constantina,  near  Almaden),  and  of  Cordova,  all  were 
worked  by  slaves,  whom  the  Romans  sacrificed  by  the  myriad.  Strabo, 
who  supplies  some  of  this  information  in  his  Third  Book,  adds  that 
"The  gold  mines  nearly  all  belong  to  the  State,"  whilst  "the  silver 
mines  are  no  longer  the  property  of  the  State,  but  of  private  indi- 
viduals." Gold  was  coined  exclusively  by  the  State:  silver  was  still 
permitted  to  be  coined  by  the  Gentes. 

But  although  the  gold  mines  were  owned  by  the  State  they  were 
in  point  of  fact,  during  the  decadence  of  the  reiniblic,  worked  by 
publicans  or  contractors,  to  whom  the  State  farmed  the  privilege  of 
working  so-and-so  many  slaves  upon  the  mines.  *  The  profits  made 
by  these  middle-men,  most  of  whom  were  idle  absentee  "nobles," 
living  iii^Rome,  was  in  direct  proportion  to  the  cruelty  of  the  agents 
employed  by  them  to  work  the  slaves.  The  sacrifice  of  human  life 
was  frightful:  the  profit  enormous:  the  infamy  eternal.  The  Span- 
ish mines  are  graves  in  which  were  buried  entire  races.  Their  pro- 
duce was  those  vast  fortunes  which  were  spent  in  gluttony,  drunken- 
ness and  debauchery.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  conquest  of 
Spain  wrought  the  ruin  of  Rome  in  much  the  same  way  that  the 
conquest  of  America  afterward  ruined  Spain.  It  begat  a  necessity 
for  further  acquisitions  of  gold  and  silver,  which  in  turn  occa- 
sioned the  neglect  of  agriculture  and  promoted  a  passion  for  empire. 
It  was  the  demand  for  plunder  that  sent  the  armies  of  Rome  to 
Asia,  Greece,  and  Carthage,  and  the  capture  of  plunder  that  built 
up  those  wealthy  adventurers  wiio,  inflated  with  riches  and  power, 
demanded,  like  Flamininus,  Scipio,  Sylla,  and  Crcsar,  to  be  wor- 
shipped as  gods. 

"Polybius,  speaking  of  the  silver  mines  of  New  Carthage  (in  Spain) 

'  The  Tartcssus  (Strabo)  is  the  (;uadali]uivcr.  In  iSSS  a  j^n-at  tlootl  in  this  river 
destroyed  many  lives  and  a  million  pesetas  worth  of  property  in  the  province  of 
Malaga.  The  storm  was  verj*  severe  in  Seville.  Was  the  derangement  of  the  river 
due  to  ancient  mining  ? 

*  Possibly  the  origin  of  the  encomienda  system,  to  which  further  reference  will  be 
maae  in  the  text.  Under  the  Emperors,  all  of  the  gold  mines  ami  some  of  the  silver 
mines  were  worked  by  the  imperial  fisc.     Jacob,  "  Hist.  Tree.  Met." 


68  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

tells  US  that  they  were  distant  from  the  city  about  20  stadia  (2  ^  miles) 
that  they  were  very  extensive,  occupying  a  circuit  of  400  stadia,  that 
there  were  40,000  men  continually  employed  in  them  and  that  they 
yielded  adaily  revenue  of  25,000  drachmae."  "  The  process  was  smelt- 
ing and  cupellation.  If  the  produce  had  all  been  divided  among  the 
workmen,  which  is  of  course  out  of  the  question,  it  would  not  have 
amounted  to  more  than  five-eighths  of  a  drachma  per  diem  each, 
scarcely  sufficient  to  keep  them  alive;  to  say  nothing  of  the  expense 
of  machinery,  tools,  timber,  lights,  and  other  supplies,  nor  of  trans- 
portation, management,  taxes  and  mint-charges.  Hence,  it  is  quite 
safe  to  conclude,  with  Mr.  Jacob,  that  "the  silver  produced  must 
have  cost  more  than  its  current  worth."  The  fact  that  some  people 
grew  rich  from  these  mines  does  not  controvert  this  general  statement. 

Another  neighbourhood  rich  in  silver  was  Mons  Argentorius  or 
Silver  Mountain,  the  Sierra  Cazorla,  in  which  the  Guadalquiver, 
"the  silver-bedded  Tartessus,"  takes  its  rise.  Montesquieu,  in  read- 
ing Strabo's  account  of  this  district,  thought  that  it  must  have  been 
to  Spain  what  Potosi  afterwards  was  to  America;  but  there  is  scarcely 
warrant  for  this  conjecture.  With  regard  to  the  Pyrenean  mines, 
between  Spain  and  Gaul,  Montesquieu  states  that  in  the  war  for  the 
succession  of  Spain  the  Marquis  of  Rhodes,  who  had  lost  a  fortune 
in  gold  mines  and  recovered  it  in  the  management  of  certain  hos- 
pitals, applied  to  the  court  of  France  for  leave  to  search  the  moun- 
tains for  gold  and  silver;  and  that  there  he  sank  his  second  fortune; 
for  he  found  nothing.  '* 

Very  extensive  auriferous  workings,  presumably  Roman,  have  been 
found  in  the  quartz  district  in  the  Sierra  Jadina,  about  30  miles  from 
the  Talavera  de  la  Reina  highway  and  20  miles  from  the  Madrid-Lisbon 
railway.  The  auriferous  seams  are  in  ferruginous  quartzite.  They  are 
usually  thin,  but  in  places  swell  to  six  feet  in  thickness.  These  mines 
were  re-opened  in  1855  and  i860,  but  both  times  at  a  loss.  " 

An  abandoned  Roman  quartz  mine,  75  feet  deep  to  water,  now 
called  Monte  del  Oro,  near  Brandomil,  about  18  miles  from  Coruna 
and  the  same  distance  from  Corcubion,  showed  2  to  2^  feet  of  very 
low  grade  ore,  practically  worthless;  yet  this  hole  in  the  ground  was 
in  1885  rigged  up  by  London  promoters  and  sold  to  the  public  for 
^75,000;  and  when  the  enterprise  failed,  as  fail  it  was  bound  to  do, 
these  Pharisees  blamed  the  wicked  Spaniards.  ^^ 

^  Strabo,  III,  ii,  10.  '"  Michelet,  Rom.  Rep.  144. 

"  Private  information  from  J.  T.  Browne,  M.  E. 
'-  London  Financial  News,  Feb.  21,  1887. 


SJ'AIN     AND    GALL.  6q 

The  Roman  poets  spoke  of  the  Astures  as  a  people  of  Spain  who 
spent  all  their  lives  in  digging  mines.  One  might  suppose  from  this 
that  they  took  a  pleasure  in  this  occupation,  but  in  fact,  they  were 
slaves,  who  were  dragged  to  the  Astures  from  many  distant  lands, 
from  Britain,  from  Judca,  from  Mauretania;  and  forced  to  end  their 
lives  in  the  unrequited  toil  of  the  Spanish  mines.  " 

Silver  mines  were  worked  by  the  Romans  in  Turdetania  and  at 
Ilipas,  and  Sisapo,  in  the  Sierra  Morena,  also  in  Leon  and  the  Pyr- 
enees. Says  Pliny:  "  Some  have  stated  that  Asturias,  Gallicia  and 
Lusitania  furnish  two  thousand  pounds  of  gold  annually:  but  Astu- 
rias supplies  the  most;  nor  in  any  other  part  of  the  world  during  the 
past  has  so  great  a  quantity  been  obtained.  In  every  species  of 
gold  there  is  a  proportion  of  silver;  a  tenth,  a  ninth,  or  an  eighth. 
In  the  gold  called  albicavense,  there  is  only  one  thirty-sixth  part  of 
silver,  on  which  account  it  is  more  valuable  than  any  other:"  "t— a 
statement  which  indicates  that  the  art  of  separating  gold  from  silver 
was  either  imperfect  or  expensive.  Yet  with  all  this  wealth  about 
them,  the  natives,  like  those  of  South  Africa  to-day,  were  poor  and 
miserable.  In  Bastetania  (province  of  Malaga)  they  did  not  even 
enjoy  the  convenience  of  money,  but  exchanged  their  commodities 
for  bits  of  silver,  cut  rudely  from  pieces  of  plate.  " 

It  is  much  the  same  to-day.  In  the  Sierra  Nevada,  less  than  a 
hundred  miles  from  Malaga,  there  stands  a  mountain  of  auriferous 
material,  which,  notwithstanding  that  it  has  been  worked  successively 
by  several  ancient  races,  still  contains  millions  of  tons  of  auriferous 
gravel.  The  water  supply  is  abundant,  the  dump  capacious,  the  gra- 
dient ample,  the  climate  charming  and  labour  very  cheap;  indeed  all 
the  conditions  of  placer-mining  are  said  to  be  favourable.  Yet  the 
mines  have  been  long  abandoned  and  the  peasantry  of  the  vicinity 
are  miserably  poor.  '*  The  reason  is  that,  at  the  level  of  prices 
created  by  the  plunder  of  America  and  the  subsequent  working  of 
the  American  mines  by  Intlian  slaves,  the  mines  of  Old  Spain  have  not 
paid  to  work.  A  similar  condition  of  affairs  occurred  in  Rome  fifteen 
or  sixteen  centuries  previously.  There,  the  level  of  prices  created 
by  the  plunder  of  Oreece,  Spain,  Gaul,  etc.,  had  to  be  sustained  by 
slave-mining.  When  that  broke  down,  there  was  nothing  left  but 
retrogression,  decay,  and  the  Dark  Ages.  The  modern  world  is  more 
fortunate.  It  has  been  enabled  at  intervals  to  arrest  the  fall  of  prices 
with  private  paper-money  and  credit.    It  can  never  arrest  the  fall  of 

"  Lucan,  iv,  29S;  Silius  Italicus,  I,  231.  '*  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist,  xxxiii,  23. 

'*  Strabo,  mi,  iii.  7.  '*  .Skertchleys  Kcpuri,  iSy.^. 


70  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

prices  permanently  without  resort  to  a  monetary  system  resting  upon 
government  paper-money  and  credit. 

Shortly  after  systematic  mining  was  begun  by  the  Spaniards  in 
America,  the  king  of  Spain  issued  an  edict  forbidding  mining  for  the 
precious  metals  in  the  mother  country.  Sismondi  in  his  "Under- 
ground "  says  that  this  edict  was  issued  by  Ferdinand;  Roscher 
(i,  410)  dates  the  edict  in  1535,  which  would  throw  it  into  the  reign 
of  Charles  I. ;  while  Kilpatrick  says  it  was  issued  by  Philip  III.,  in 
1604,  and  that  it  remained  in  force  until  ]\Iay  25,  1823."  It  is  prob- 
able that  all  of  these  authorites  are  correct,  and  that  the  edict  was 
issued,  or  repeated,  by  all  of  these  monarchs.  Its  object  was  to  stim- 
ulate mining  in  America,  and  by  this  means  to  increase  the  king's 
share,  which,  originally,  was  one-fifth,  (the  Quinto.)  Its  repeal  was 
due  to  the  loss  of  the  Spanish-American  colonies.  The  repeal  was 
followed  by  a  mining  mania  in  Spain,  which  Macgregor,  writing  in 
1844,  alludes  to  in  vague  terms,  but  which  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  followed  by  any  practical  results,  so  far  as  the  precious  metals 
are  concerned. 

Within  the  past  forty  years  the  total  number  of  precious  metal 
mines  in  Spain  has  been  ofificially  stated  at  2274  silver  and  6  gold, 
together  2280  mines:  but  this  leaves  out  of  account  gravel  mines 
and  mines  which  have  not  been  at  all  worked  in  modern  times.  '* 
The  enormous  preponderance  of  silver  mines  shown  in  this  statement 
lends  great  significance  to  that  Roman  legislation,  which  abandoned 
silver-mining  and  the  privilege  of  minting  silver  coins  to  the  Gentes. 
Of  this  great  number  of  mines  but  very  few  are  worked  at  the  present 
time. 

The  chief  impediment  to  mining  in  Spain — the  same  may  be  said 
of  all  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese-American  states — is  due  to  that 
class  of  persons  who,  in  the  name  of  religion,  levy  a  tribute  upon  all 
industries  suspected  of  being  profitable  and  especially  those  which 
are  conducted  in  places  remote  from  the  protection  of  the  civil  law. 
Unless  the  local  clergy  and  the  provincial  bishop  are  propitiated  in 
advance,  mining  simply  becomes  impracticable,  obstacles  arise  on  all 
sides,  the  peasants  will  refuse  to  work,  the  gold  will  disappear  and 
the  miner  will  be  fortunate  who  escapes  without  an  accident.  These 
results  are  not  the  consequences  of  any  particular  form  of  religion: 
they  would  follow  any  religion  which  kept  the  people  in  ignorance 
and  reposed  a  large  discretionary  power  in  the  hands  of  local  curates. 

"  Engineer  Kilpatrick,  in  a  MS.  report  on  the  mines  of  the  Rio  Sil,  about  1SS5. 
'*  London  Statistical  Journal,  vol.,  xxiii. 


SPAIN     AND    GAUL. 


The  current  annual  production  of  Spain  is  about  six  million  ounces; 
about  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  of  which  is  gold  and  the  remainder 
silver.  If  modern  mining  methods  and  processes  were  introduced 
into  Spain  she  might  yet  become  once  more  one  of  the  most  produc- 
tive countries  in  the  precious  metals;  but  if  the  true  welfare  of  the 
country  is  to  be  consulteil  it  were  better  that  the  ordinance  of  1604 
were  re-enacted  and  maile  a  part  of  the  constitutional  law.  Active 
mining  for  the  precious  metals  wouUl  rob  Spain  of  the  many  advant- 
ages she  has  gained  of  late  years  in  industrial  habits,  economy,  and 
wealth. 

The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  the  gold,  silver,  and  quicksilver 
mines  in  Spain  and  Portugal,  which  are  known  to  have  been  worked 
in  ancient  times: 


District. 
Sierra  Nevada 
Banks  of  the  Duerna 
Banks  of  the  Sil 
Castropodame 
Banks  of  the  Sil 
Las  Medulas 
Banks  of  the  Sil 
Cantabrian  Pyrenees 
Bebulo  (Guadalcanal) 
Carthaga  Nova 


I'rovince. 
Malaga 
Astorga,  Leon 
San  Miguel,  Leon 
San  Miguel,  Leon 
Ponferrada.  Leon 
Las  Medulas,  Leon 
Orense,  Galicia 
River  Burbia 
Near  Cordova 
Carthagena,  Murcia 


Basin  of  Guadalquiver  River  washings 


Banks  of  streams 
Guatlalajara 
Constantina 
Basin  of  Tagus 
Sierra  Morena 
Banks  of  the  Baza 
Sisapo,  in  Ba^tica 
Pyrenees  Mountains 
Rio  Tinto 
Rio  Tinto 
Rio  Tinto 
Aim  ad  en 
Banks  of  Burbia 
Banks  of  Oria 
Banks  of  Eria 
Mt.  Teleno 
Jadefja  '• 
St.  Domingo 
Tamaya 
Douro 


Near  Cordova 

Near  NLadrid 

Andalusia 

River  washings 

Mcjuntains  of  Jaen 

Near  Granada,  Andalusia 

27  miles  N.  N.  W.  Seville 

Aragon 

Huelva 

Huelva 

Huelva 


Character  of  Mines. 
Gold  gravel 
Gold  gravel 
Gold  gravel 
Gold  (juartz 
Gold  gravel 
Gold  gravel 
Gold  gravel 
Gold  gravel 
Silver 
Silver 
Gold 

Gold  gravei 
(iold  gravel 
Gold&  copper 
Gold 
Silver 

Gold  gravel 
Quicksilver 
Silver 

Gold  gravel 
Silver 
Copper 


La  Mancha(.\l-Makrisi,p.  266)   Quicksilver 


Near  Villa  Franca  Ciold  gravel 

Near  Cuevas  Gold  gravel 

Affluent  of  the  Duero  (lold  gravel 

Near  Las  Medulas  Gold  gravel 
30  m.  from  Talavera  de  la  R.   Gold  cpiartz 

Logroi^o,  Old  Castile  Gold  quartz 

(On  the   Tamega?)  Lock,cit.  Livy 

Near  Oi^orto  Gold  quartz 

"  The  gold  quartz  mines  of  Jadtna  were  worked  by  the  Romans  and  probably  also 
by  the  Saracens. 


72  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

There  were  probably  many  others  worked;  but  mining  is  a  secret 
art  and  miners  give  as  little  information  as  possible  to  the  public. 

The  St.  Domingo  mines  of  Spain  were  worked  by  the  Romans  in 
what  may  be  termed  a  scientific  manner.  In  some  of  them  adits 
were  excavated  for  draining  purposes  nearly  three  miles  in  length, 
whilst  in  others  with  deep  shafts  the  water  was  raised  by  means  of 
a  series  of  gigantic  wheels.  Eight  of  these,  all  of  them  in  a  high 
state  of  preservation,  have  been  recently  found  by  the  miners  who 
are  employed  in  workings  contiguous  to  these  old  mines.  The  wheels 
are  made  of  wood,  the  axles,  where  the  greatest  strain  would  come, 
being  of  oak  and  the  other  parts  of  pine.  It  is  estimated  that  the 
Avheels  are  i,8oo  years  old,  although  the  wood  is  still  in  a  perfect 
state  of  preservation,  owing  to  the  water  being  charged  with  metallic 
salts,  including  those  of  copper  and  iron.  The  wheels  must  have  been 
worked  on  the  treadmill  principle,  by  men  standing  upon  one  side  of 
them,  the  water  being  raised  by  one  wheel  into  a  large  basin,  and 
then  lifted  another  stage  by  a  second  wheel,  and  so  on  in  the  same 
way  by  others  to  the  surface.  ^" 

About  the  year  A.  D.  66  Pliny  was  appointed  Procurator  in  Spain, 
an  office  intrusted  with  the  management  of  the  revenue.  It  is  to  be 
presumed  that  in  such  capacity  he  must  have  been  more  or  less  well 
informed  as  to  the  sources  of  revenue,  and  particularly  that  import- 
ant portion  of  it  which  was  derived  from  the  gold  mines.  The  guarded 
manner  in  which  he  states  the  output  of  gold  furnishes  ground  for 
the  supposition  that,  like  America  under  Spanish  rule,  the  Spanish 
mines  yielded  more  than  the  Roman  treasury  received,  or  than  was 
reported  as  having  been  yielded.  He  does  not  say  that  "the  ac- 
counts in  my  office  show  the  yield  to  have  been  so  much,"  but  that 
"according  to  some  authorities  "  the  annual  yield  from  Asturias, 
Galicia  and  Lusitania,  chiefly  from  Asturias,  was  20,000  Roman 
pounds.  In  round  figures  and  assuming  the  gold  to  have  been  im- 
pure, this  was  worth  in  modern  money  about  $4,000,000.  Pliny  va- 
cated his  office  as  Procurator  a  little  before  A.  D.  73  and  in  A.  D.  79 
he  died  from  the  effects  of  exposure  and  the  sulphurous  vapors  emitted 
during  that  famous  eruption  of  Vesuvius  which  buried  for  seventeen 
centuries  the  cities  of  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii. 

Pliny  wrote  a  great  number  of  works,  only  one  of  which  remains 
to  us.  This  is  his  "Natural  History,"  which  is  divided  into  thirty- 
seven  books.  The  text  of  this  work  had  become  so  much  corrupted 
before  the  invention  of  printing,  and  has  since  become  so  muddled 

''"London  Mining  Journal,  18S7. 


SPAIN     AND    t;AUL.  73 

through  the  ignorance  of  commentators  who  knew  nothing  of  mining 
and  mining  terms,  that  nothing  can  be  mailc  of  it  without  visiting 
the  mines  which  he  describes  and  seeing  how  tlie  worlc  was  done.  With 
this  aid  it  becomes  intelligible.  Mr.  Marsh,  the  gifted  author  of 
"The  Earth  as  Modified  by  Human  Action,"  supposed  the  hydraulic 
system  of  mining  as  practiced  in  California  to  be  "substantially 
identical  with  that  ilescribed  in  an  interesting  manner  by  Pliny  the 
Elder;"  but  he  was  mistaken.  The  essential  j^eculiarity  of  the  liy- 
draulic  system  is  the  breaking  down  of  the  auriferous  gravel  by 
powerful  streams  of  water  ejected  through  iron  pipes;  the  Romans 
had  no  iron  jiijies  and  they  did  not  i)ractice  the  hydraulic  system;  but 
the  system  which  they  did  practice  was  substantially  the  same  as  the 
hyraulic  system  except  in  the  one  important  respect  mentioned.  How 
they  broke  down  the  gravel  banks  will  now  be  stated  on  the  author- 
ity of  Pliny,  backed  by  the  evidence  of  the  works  themselves. 

Says  Pliny:  "The  tliird  method  of  obtaining  gold  (he  has  already 
described  river  washing  and  quartz  mining)  surpasses  even  the  la- 
bour of  the  giants.  This  is  by  the  aid  of  galleries  driven  a  long  dis- 
tance into  the  mountain,  the  men  working  by  torchlight,  the  length 
of  the  torches  regulating  the  shifts  and  the  men  never  seeing  the 
light  of  day  for  many  months  together.  Not  infrequeiuly  slides  occur, 
the  earth  caves  in  and  the  men  are  crushed  beneath."  The  text  then 
diverges  into  a  description  of  quartz  mining  and  stamp  mills.  The 
galleries  that  Pliny  alludes  to  were  not  driven  into  the  mountain — i.f. 
gravel  banks — but  parallel  to  the  faces  of  the  banks.  At  Las  Medu- 
las  these  banks  rise  precipitously  to  the  almost  incredible  height  of 
750  feet  above  bed  rock.  There  is  nothing  like  them  in  all  California 
or  South  America.  Generally  speaking  the  gravel  is  not  cemented, 
but  it  is  so  firm  that  the  banks  stand  to-day  quite  perpendicular,  al- 
though many  centuries  have  passed  since  they  were  last  worked. 
The  object  of  driving  these  galleries  was  to  undermine  an  up-and- 
down  slice  of  the  bank,  precisely  as  gravel  banks  are  undermined 
to-day  by  means  of  hyraulic  jets  and  cross-jets.  In  this  undermining 
work  the  hardest  part  was  where  cement  was  encountered.  Pliny 
describes  it  as  "a  kind  of  potter's  clay,  mixed  with  gravel — gangadia 
by  name — which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  overcome.  This  substance 
has  to  be  attacked  with  iron  wedges  and  and  hammers,  and  it  is  gen- 
erally considered  that  there  is  nothing  more  stubborn  in  existence, 
except,  indeed,  the  greed  for  gold,  which  is  the  most  stubborn  of 
all  things." 

Having  told  us  how  the  face  of  the  cliff  is  undermineil,  Pliny  goes 


74  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

on  to  State  how  the  mountain,  or  rather  the  undermined  slice  of  it, 
falls  down,  but  here  he  goes  too  fast.  He  entirely  omits  to  show 
what  causes  it  to  fall  and  this  is  precisely  what  the  mountain  stands 
ready  to  tell  us  to-day.  On  top  of  the  bank,  parallel  to  its  face  and 
situated  at  the  same  distance  from  it  as  the  undermined  gallery 
below,  the  workmen  drove  a  trench  or  canal — in  some  cases  merely 
a  line  of  pits — and  filled  these  with  water.  Now  we  can  take  up  Pliny 
again:  "When  these  operations  are  all  completed  they  cut  away  the 
wooden  pillars  which  support  the  roof  [of  the  undermined  gallery]. 
The  coming  downfall  gives  warning  when  the  time  comes  and  this  is 
perceived  by  a  sentinel,  who  is  set  to  watch  for  it  upon  a  suitable  ele- 
vation hard  by.  With  voice  and  gestures  he  directs  the  workmen  in 
the  open  sluice-way  far  below  to  stand  from  under,  and  at  the  same 
time  takes  care  of  his  own  safety.  The  mountain,  rent  by  art,  is 
cleft  asunder,  hurling  its  debris  to  a  distance  with  a  tumult  which  it 
is  impossible  for  the  imagination  to  conceive,  and  from  the  midst  of 
a  cloud  of  dense  dust  the  victorious  miners  gaze  upon  this  downfall  of 
nature."  After  describing  how  water  is  brought  to  the  brow  of  these 
cliffs — of  which  more  anon — and  how  the  fallen  earth  is  run  through 
ground  and  wooden  sluices,  arranged  with  riffles  of  ulex  to  catch  the 
gold,  he  follows  the  earth  to  the  sea,  and  affords  us  a  glimpse  of  the 
slickens  question  in  the  first  century  of  our  sera.  Says  Pliny:  "The 
earth,  carried  downward  by  the  rivers,  arrives  at  last  at  the  sea,  and 
thus  are  the  shattered  mountains  carried  away.  These  works  have 
greatly  helped  to  extend  the  shores  of  Spain  by  their  encroachments 
upon  the  deep.  By  the  same  agency  the  tailings  of  the  quartz  mines 
are  carried  away,"  thus  adding  to  the  sum  of  slickens. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  Minho,  Douro,  Tagus,  Guadiana  and 
Guadalquiver  all  were  navigable  rivers,  but  owing  to  the  operations 
of  gold  miners  throughout  many  centuries,  they  have  long  ceased  to 
be  such.  We  shall  not  readily  forget  when  we  first  caught  sight  of 
these  gigantic  and  striking  works  of  the  ancient  Romans.  We  had 
dined  the  previous  evening  at  the  wretched  posada  ot  Carrucedo. 
After  dinner  we  started  for  the  village  of  Las  Medulas,  intending  to 
sleep  there  over  night  and  accomplish  the  ascent  of  the  gravel  banks 
in  the  morning.  From  Carrucedo  to  Las  Medulas  is  two  miles  and 
three-quarters;  the  ascent  is  from  altitude  1500  to  altitude  2225,  arise 
of  725  feet,  or  about  one  foot  in  twenty.  The  road  winds  through 
the  "dump"  of  the  mines,  which  is  interspered  with  immense  stacks 
of  bowlders  and  cobble-stones,  arranged  with  great  precision  and 
covered   with   the  gray  moss   of  ages.      Between   these  stacks,  the 


SPAIN     ANn    r.AL'I.. 


75 


"dump"  is  now  laid  out  in  cultivated  fields,  where,  under  the  shade 
of  hoary  old  chestnut  trees,  a  dwarfed  and  impoverished  growth  of 
wheat  struggles  toward  the  sun.  The  road  is  stee[),  but  it  is  bordered 
with  wild  roses  and  lavender  and  one  forgets  the  fatigue  of  the  jour- 
ney as  he  inhales  their  sweet  perfume.  Half-way  up  we  stopped  and 
gazed  over  the  spacious  fields  which  once  formed  the  main  sewer  of 
Las  Medulas  and  where  myriads  of  Roman  captives  anil  slaves  must 
have  breathed  their  last  in  the  unremitting  and  savage  drudgery  of 
the  mines.  Here  were  then  assembled  a  vast  host  of  unfortunates 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  captives  from  Carthage  and  Judea,  from 
Britain  and  from  Egypt,  flaxen-haired  whitt-s  from  the  Baltic,  wooly- 
haired  negroes  from  Africa,  freetlmen  from  Rome  (those  who  had 
been  *•  ungrateful  "  to  their  patrons)  and  even  legionary  soldiers. 
This  was  the  Siberia  of  the  ancient  empire,  the  golden  prison  beyond 
the  sea,  the  "undiscovered  country  from  whose  bourne  no  traveler 
returned."  Here  all  their  laments  were  united;  here  all  their  hopes 
dissolved;  here  all  their  sufferings  were  entombed.  The  stacks  of 
bowlders  which  they  themselves  erected  are  their  monuments,  the 
gray  moss  is  their  epitaph.  So  long  as  time  shall  endure  will  these 
remain;  for  so  vast  is  their  bulk  that  it  would  require  another  army 
of  slaves  to  remove  them.  In  something  over  an  hour  after  leaving 
Carrucedo  we  reached  Las  Medulas.  This  pueblo  consists  of  say 
forty  or  fifty  houses,  scattered  about  the  upper  portion  of  the  ancient 
sluice-ways,  which  had  many  ramifications.  The  air  of  the  place, 
when  one  does  not  venture  too  near  a  house  or  one  of  the  inhabitants, 
is  pure  and  refreshing.  The  women  are  the  prettiest  to  be  met  with 
in  Northern  Spain.  It  may  be  very  absurd,  but  we  fancied  that 
their  countenances  were  of  a  Roman  cast.  Is  it  possible  that  the 
poor  victims  of  the  mines  have  transmitted  their  features  through 
eighteen  centuries  of  descendants?  Spain  is  a  very  conservative 
country,  and  gold  mines,  even  after  they  have  "petered  out,"  are 
hard  things  to  abandon.  Witness  White  Pine  and  Virginia,  Nevada. 
At  Las  Medulas  the  women,  instead  of  wearing  mii<fre'nyos,  or 
wooden  shoes,  wore  leather  ones,  as  in  more  civilized  countries.  The 
men  were  almost  as  handsome  as  the  women.  Ramiro,  the  son  of 
our  hostess,  a  youth  of  20  years,  was  as  neat  a  looking  fellow  as  one 
might  find  in  the  Abruzzi.  Roman,  too,  oh,  decidedly  Roman.  It 
was  no  longer  a  fancy — we  were  sure  of  it  now.  Some  of  the  old 
legionary  soldiers  must  have  remained  here  with  their  families  after 
the  mines  were  abandoned  by  the  Government,  just  as  the  Hessian 
soldiers  settled  in  Pennsylvania  after  the  Revolutionary  war. 


76  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

After  a  walk  through  the  village  which  was  just  as  dirty  as  the 
villages  previously  encountered,  we  put  up  at  the  only  house  where 
the  traveler  can  find  entertainment  at  Las  Medulas — that  of  the 
widow  Carlota  Ascasvero  Lopez,  who  prepared  the  supper.  In  this 
house  the  hearth  was  composed  of  a  raised  platform  of  slate  slabs, 
framed  or  bordered  by  logs.  The  fire  was  built  in  the  centre  of  this 
platform,  and  over  it  was  suspended  an  iron  pot.  Long  wooden 
benches  were  arranged  on  each  of  the  two  sides  of  the  hearth,  and 
here  the  family  sat  while  the  pot  boiled.  The  smoke,  as  in  the  other 
houses  of  this  country,  found  it  way  out  the  best  way  it  could.  There 
W'as  no  chimney.  In  the  bedroom  there  was  a  cot,  a  chair,  a  table 
and  a  chest,  all  of  heavy  wood  hewn  with  adzes.  In  the  chest  were 
kept  the  bed  linen  and  towels.  The  washstand  was  a  wooden  bench 
on  the  porch.  The  fare  at  supper  was  coarse,  but  we  fancied  it  was 
much  cleaner  than  elsewhere  throughout  Leon.  To  bed  at  9  o'clock 
and  up  at  4:30  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when,  with  Ramiro  for  a  guide, 
we  started  to  surmount  Las  Medulas. 

It  took  an  hour  to  reach  the  top,  but  the  view  well  repaid  the  toil 
of  the  ascent.  Towering  up  from  the  faintly  descried  village,  their 
summits  being  the  plateau  upon  which  we  stood,  were  the  monstrous 
gravel  buttresses  of  Las  Medulas.  Far  below,  on  the  right,  wound 
the  river  Sil,  on  the  left  the  Cabrera,  and  at  their  junction  the  town 
of  Domingo  Flores,  bearing  southwest  by  west.  The  intermediate 
country  consists  of  lofty  hills  and  broken  ridges,  destitute  of  trees. 
Near  the  edge  of  the  gravel  cliffs  wound  the  road  from  Orellan  to 
Buena  Yrenes  and  as  we  followed  this  around  and  crossed  a  saddle 
that  led  from  the  summit  of  the  gravel  cliffs  to  the  mountain  behind 
them,  we  came  in  sight  of  the  Roman  ditches.  Six  of  them  are  plainly 
discernible;  some  observers  have  made  out  a  seventh.  They  are  ar- 
ranged one  above  the  other,like  so  many  zones  carved  upon  the  rocks. 
The  lowest  one  was  no  doubt  constructed  first  and  the  other  ones 
subsequently,  as  a  greater  and  greater  altitude  of  water  was  needed 
to  wash  the  mines. 

These  ditches  are  cut  in  slate,  the  stratification  of  which  is  on  edge, 
as  we  have  seen  it  in  many  parts  Nevada  County,  California.  That 
it  was  not  difficult  to  cut,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  cart-wheels 
on  the  Orellan  road  have  cut  deep  ruts  in  the  same  rocks  by  merely 
passing  over  them.  We  jumped  down  into  one  of  the  ditches  and 
examined  it  closely.  It  measures  exactly  five  feet  in  width  on  the 
bottom.  The  width  at  the  top  is  not  so  clearly  defined,  the  elements 
having  worn  away  the  rock  and  broken  down  the  outer  bank,  but  we 


Sl'AlN     AM)     (lAUI..  77 

fancy  it  nuist  have  been  over  seven  feet  wide,  with  a  rise  of  about 
three  feet,  exchisive  of  the  bank  formed  by  heaping  up  the  excavated 
contents.  The  grade  api)ears  to  be  about  twelve  feet  to  the  mile, 
although  this  could  'not  be  determined  with  i)recision  without  trac- 
ing the  ditch  for  a  much  longer  distance  than  we  deemed  it  neces- 
sarv.  The  grade  aj^pears  'o  be  uniform, and  to  make  it  so  the  Romans 
must  have  used  some  sort  of  leveling  instrument.  In  fact,  the  work 
appears  to  have  been  thoroughly  well  done,  ami  we  take  this  oppor- 
tunity to  compliment  the  Roman  engineer  who  executed  it.  With- 
out the  aid  of  gunpowder  it  seems  wonderful  that  it  should  have 
been  accomplished  at  all. 

These  ditches  are  twenty-six  miles  long,  and  as  there  are  seven  of 
them,  the  amount  of  rock-cutting  was  no  less  than  1S2  miles!  The 
water  was  brought  from  the  upper  portion  of  the  river  Cabrera.  Of 
course  the  ditches  have  no  water  in  them  at  i)resent,  nor  have  they  had 
for  many  ages,  they  having  been  broken  down  k)ng  since.  But  enougl> 
of  them  remains  to  evince  the  skill,  the  resolution  and  the  indomit- 
able energy  of  those  who  constructed  tlu-ni.  Every  inch  of  these 
182  miles  must  have  been  chiseled  out  by  hand.  Myriads  of  lives, 
must  have  been  sacrificed  in  this  work.  And  what  remains  of  it  all?' 
.\  few  coins  of  Octavius,  of  Tiberius,  of  Caligula,  of  Claudius,  of 
Nero.  One  of  these  we  Secured.  It  is  an  aureus  of  Nero,  and  was; 
found  in  the  sluice-way  of  the  mine.  In  weight  and  size  it  is  some- 
thing less  than  the  sovereign  or  half-eagle.  In  design  it  is  totally^ 
different, the  coin  being  much  thicker  in  the  middle  than  at  the  edges. 

Before  descemling  from  the  summit  of  Las  Medulas  we  measured! 
with  the  eye  the  extent  of  ground  which  the  Romans  had  wc^rked! 
out.  This  must  be  upwards  of  1000  acres,  and  the  average  height 
of  the  wt)rkeil  portion  ranges  from  fifty  to  250  feet,  say  a  general 
average  of  150  feet.  Only  a  small  jiortion  of  the  very  high  graveC 
banks — those  ranging  from  500  to  750  feet  in  height — was  worked  off 
by  them.  They  left  this  jiortion  to  puzzle  the  engineering  skill  of  a 
remote  posterity.  In  some  jiortions  of  these  high  banks  are  seen 
tunnels  through  which  the  Romans  conveyed  the  ditch-water  to  the 
summit  of  the  lower  banks.  These  tunnels  the  Spaniards  called  cucvas^ 

Half  an  hour  after  leaving  the  summit  of  Las  Medulas  we  had  paid 
our  bill  and  adieus  at  the  village  and  were  on  our  way  back  to  Carru- 
cedo.  Below  this  village — between  it  and  the  riverSil — more  won- 
ders remained  to  be  explored.  To  appreciate  these,  it  must  be  pre- 
mised that  the  immense  mass  of  debris  that  flowed  down  from  Las 
Meilulas  was  arranged  to  fall   into  river  the  Sil,  but  that  on  its  way 


78  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

'thither  it  accumulated  in  vast  heaps,  which  the  water  from  the  base  of 
the  cliffs  was  inadequate  to  carry  off.  In  order  to  wash  it  away  and 
carry  it  into  the  Sil,  resort  was  had  to  the  device  known  in  California 
as  "booming,"  and  it  is  with  the  booming  arrangements  of  the  Ro- 
man miners  that  we  shall  close  this  long, but  we  hope  not  uninteresting 
description.  Near  Carrucedo  and  at  an  altitude  of  more  than  looo 
feet  below  the  bed-rock  at  Las  Medulas,  there  anciently  ran  a  stream 
which  emptied  by  an  acute  angle  into  the  Sil.  This  stream,  which 
we  will  call  the  Rio  Carrucedo,  was  dammed  up  by  the  Romans  at  a 
point  above  Carrucedo  and  its  waters  were  allowed  to  accumulate  so 
as  to  form  a  lake,  which  still  exists  and  is  of  enormous  dimensions, 
several  miles  across.  Below  the  dam  they  sank  the  river-bed  fifty 
to  seventy-five  feet  below  its  natural  level;  so  that  when  the  lake  was 
let  down,  its  flood  might  not  damage  the  adjacent  country.  Into  this 
sunken  river-bed  and  at  right  angles  to  it,  flowed  the  debris  of  the 
mines.  Thence  all  the  lighter  portions  were  swept  into  the  Sil,  but 
the  heavier  portions  remained  and  clogged  up  the  sunken  river-bed. 
To  remove  this  deposit  the  floodgates  of  the  dammed-up  lake  were 
periodically  removed  and  the  whole  of  its  vast  contents  let  down  at 
once.  The  effect  was  not  only  to  sweep  away  the  deposit  of  bowl- 
ders and  cobble-stones  in  the  sunken  river-bed  and  to  carry  them 
into  the  Sil,  but  afterward  to  urge  them,  together  with  the  deposits 
of  pebbles  and  sand  in  the  Sil,  down,  down,  down  that  swift  river, 
until  the  entire  mass  was  hurled  through  the  Minho  into  the  ocean. 

You  can  see  the  marks  of  these  "booms"  to-day  along  the  rockv 
walls  of  the  Sil.  The  operation  must  have  been  indescribably  awful. 
Imagine  an  impetuous  rush  of  waters,  loo  feet  or  more  in  height, 
charged  with  stones  greater  than  cannon-balls,  flying  through  a 
rocky  defile,  which  in  many  places,  is  not  more  than  an  eighth  of  a 
mile  in  width!  If  the  precision  of  the  Roman  rock-ditches  com- 
mands our  admiration,  the  magnitude  of  this  booming  apparatus 
must  elicit  something  akin  to  reverence  for  its  authors.  One  can 
scarcely  regard  one  of  our  battle  ships,  the  Brooklyn  bridge,  the 
Chicago  water  works,  the  hydraulic  jets  of  California,  without  being 
impressed  with  some  sort  of  reverence  for  the  men  who  planned 
such  gigantic  works  of  art.  When  we  say  that  they  all  dwindle  into 
insignificance  beside  the  colossal  booming  works  of  Las  Medulas,  it 
will  begin  to  be  understood  what  sort  of  miners  the  Romans  were. '' 

The  comparative  poverty  and  backwardness  of  certain  portions  of 
.Spain  has  been  ascribed  herein  to  mining  for  the  precious  metals,  a 
'■"  The  Author's  letter  in  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  Sept.  23,  1S83. 


SPAIN     AND    GAUL.  79 

species  of  mining  that  from  various  causes,  has  always  proved  in  the 
long  run,  to  be  unprofitable.  It  would  be  well  if  in  view  of  these 
circumstances  a  notice  somewhat  like  the  following  were  printed  and 
posted  up  in  the  public  places:  ''This  fair  land  was  drenched  in 
blood  and  its  people  enslaved  by  the  Carthaginians  and  Romans  in 
pursuit  of  the  precious  metals.  It  recovered  only  when  that  pursuit  was 
forbidden  by  the  Goths  and  followed  but  feebly  by  the  Arabians.  With 
the  Discovery  of  America  and  the  concjuest  and  Ujss  of  the  colonies, 
the  same  senseless  pursuit  was  resumeil,  to  the  destruction  of  Spain's 
timber  lands,  the  diversion  of  its  waters  courses,  the  ruin  of  its  agri- 
culture, and  neglect  of  the  arts.  It  is  only  since  the  independence 
of  the  Spanish  American  colonies  that  Spain  has  had  an  opportunity 
to  recuperate.  But  a  vicious  system  of  money  still  debars  her  from 
that  more  rapid  progress  to  which  the  genius  of  her  people  entitles 
her.  Let  them  abjure  this  system  of  money.  Let  them  improve  upon 
the  e-xamjile  of  their  Gt)thic  ancestors  and  entirely  interdict  the  use 
of  gold  and  silver  {or  money.  Let  Spain  fabricate  her  own  money. 
Let  the  state  furnish  such  money  as  commerce  needs  in  oriier  to 
maintain  stable  prices  and  stimulate  trade.  Let  her  emancipate 
herself  from  the  designs  of  usurers  and  the  dangers  of  foreign  intrigue 
.and  she  will  become  once  more,  what  she  has  been  more  than  once, 
a  foremost  pcnver  in  Europe!  " 

Gold  mining  in  Gaul,  as  in  all  other  countries,  commenced  with 
the  river  washings.  The  Cote  d"  Or  on  the  Rhone  derives  its  name 
from  this  fact.  The  Isere  and  other  affluents  of  that  river  were  once 
rich  in  gold,  but  this  has  long  since  ceased  to  be  tlie  case.  The  silver 
mines  of  L'  Argeniiere  in  the  Hautes  Alpes  are  known  to  have  been 
worked  by  the  R(Mnans  and  such  was  also  probably  the  case  with 
the  mines  of  La  Gardette  and  Allemont,  which  yielded  a  small 
amount  of  gold  and  silver:  but  the  period  of  their  opening  is  un- 
certain. The  later  history  of  all  these  mines  is  alluded  to  in  the  first 
edition  of  Del  Mar's  "History  of  the  Precious  Metals."  Cape  Finis- 
tere  ' '  possesses  more  valuable  silver  and  lead  mines  than  any  other 
department  in  France,""  but  this  is  not  saying  much;  for  the  silver 
mines  of  Gaul  were  not  important.  It  is  nt^t  known  if  any  of  the 
Finistere  mines  were  worked  by  the  Romans.  One  called  "  Huel- 
goat  "  is  said  to  have  been  discovered  in  the  last  century  and  worked 
until  1866,  when  it  ceased  to  pay.  It  was  then  permitted  to  fill  with 
water,  which  reaches  to  the  surface.  It  is  600  feet  deep.  The  au- 
riferous river  .\uriegne,  in  Languedoc,  is  mentioned  by  Boisard  1, 
"  Malte  Brun,  Geography. 


8o  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

267-72.  In  1548  a  gold  mining  fever  broke  out  in  France."  This 
lasted  until  1602  and  possibly  longer.  Gold  mines  were  opened  or 
re-opened  in  the  Pyrenees,  the  mountains  of  Foix,  in  the  Lyonnais 
near  St.  Martins  and  in  La  Brie,  and  Picardy.  Silver  mines  were 
opened  in  the  Pyrenees,  Carcassan,  the  Lyonnais,  Normandy,  La 
Brie  and  Picardy.  " 

The  Garonne  was  auriferous  in  ancient  times,  but  we  have  no 
record  of  its  produce.  The  Cevennes  Mountains  produced  both 
gold  and  silver  in  small  quantities.  SaysStrabo:  "The  Tecto-Sages, 
a  tribe  of  Aquitaine,  dv/ell  near  to  the  Pyrenees,  occupying  a  small 
district  on  the  north  (northwestern)  flank  of  the  Cevennes,  a  land 
rich  in  gold."  It  was  equally  entitled  to  be  regarded  as  rich  in 
silver;  for  when  the  Romans  under  Caepio  plundered  Toulouse  they 
claim-ed  to  have  obtained  "  15,000  talents,  a  part  of  which  was  hid- 
den in  the  chapels  (the  natives  were  worshippers  of  the  Matrem 
Deorum)  and  the  remainder  in  the  sacred  lakes.  This  was  not 
coined  (money)  but  gold  and  silver  in  bullion.""  .  .  .  "When  the 
Romans  obtained  possession  of  the  country  they  put  up  these  lakes 
for  sale  at  public  auction,  and  many  of  the  purchasers  after  draining 
them  found  therein  solid  masses  of  silver.  In  Toulouse  there  was 
a  temple  held  in  great  reverence  by  the  people  and  on  this  account 
loaded  with  riches,  the  offerings  of  the  pious  which  no  one  dared  to 
touch,"  until  the  Romans  pillaged  it.  "  The  Tarbelli  (another  tribe) 
of  Aquitaine  possessed  the  richest  gold  mines:  masses  of  gold  as  big 
as  the  fist,  and  requiring  but  little  purifying,  being  found  in  shallow 
diggings,  together  with  pellets  and  gold  dust."  ....  The  Ruteni 
and  Gabales,  tribes  of  Aquitaine,  inhabiting  Rouergue  and  Gevau- 
dan,  on  the  northern  flanks  of  the  Pyrenees,  near  Narbonne,  pos- 
sessed silver  mines.  The  whole  of  Aquitaine,  from  Marseilles  and 
Narbonne  to  the  Loire,  seems  to  have  been  subject  to  the  Arverni, 
a  nation  differing  in  many  essential  respects  from  both  the  Celts  and 
Belgae.  "Their  king,  Luerius,  the  father  of  Bituitus,  who  fought 
against  Maximus  yEmelianus  and  Domitius  ^-Enobarbus,  exhibited 
his  opulence  by  scattering  a  profusion  of  gold  and  silver  coin  from  his 
chariot,  as  he  drove  across  his  native  plains."  A  similar  display  of 
opulence  was  made  in  the  same  vicinity  so  late  as  the  13th  century.*® 

Strabo  also  informs  us  that  at  Lugdunum  (Lyons  on  the  Rhone) 

'2  Calvert,  "  Rocks  of  Great  Britain,"  p.  201. 

^*  La  Septennaire,  i,  109,  cited  in  Sully,  in,  56M.,  ed.  1770. 

^^  Posidonius  in  Strabo,  iv,  i,  13.    The  Mexicans  also  sank  their  treasure  in  a  lake. 

'*  Del  Mar's  "  Ancient  Britain,"  p.   15S. 


SPAIN     AM)    (lALL,  8l 

there  was  a  temple  dedicated  to  Augustus  by  all  the  Galatai.  We 
can  add  to  this  that  there  was  also  a  temple  dedicated  ti>  Augustus 
at  Vienrve  on  the  same  river  and  quite  near  Lyons,  which  temple  is 
still  standing  and  that  its  dedication  can  still  be  read.  The  Roman 
prefects  of  Lyons,  continues  Strabo,  coin  both  gold  and  silver  money. 
To  this  statement,  it  may  be  added,  that  the  gold  coins  were  struck 
at  an  imperial  mint  and  under  the  express  authority  of  the  sovereign- 
pontiff,  who  never  permitted  any  infraction  of  this  prerogative.  The 
silver  coins  may  have  been  struck  either  for  account  of  the  hierarchi- 
cal fisc,  or  for  the  jiroconsul,  or  for  others.  Both  of  the  last  named 
practices  were  in  vogue.  As  elsewhere  stated,  the  ratio  of  value 
between  silver  and  gold  coins,  from  the  reign  of  the  first  Cnesar  to 
the  downfall  of  the  Empire  in  A.  D.  1204,  was  always  12  for  i  in 
weight. 

Upon  reviewing  the  statements  in  Strabo,  Pliny  and  other  ancient 
writers, and  comparing  them  with  what  subsequent  explorations  have 
shown,  it  is  evident  that  Gaul  was  comparatively  poor  in  mines 
of  the  precious  metals,  especially  silver;  and  that  what  the  Romans 
obtained  of  these  metals  in  that  country  was  the  accumulation  of 
ages  rather  than  the  current  product  from  mines.  The  conquerors 
tore  the  golden  torques  from  the  necks  and  arms  of  the  vanquished 
chieftains, they  robbed  the  women  and  children  of  their  petty  trinkets, 
they  even  dug  into  the  graves  of  the  dead  and  despoiled  them  of  the 
amulets  which  love  and  piety  had  consigned  to  an  eternal  repose. 
But  nowhere  do  we  find  any  evidences  that  the  mines  of  Gaul  yielded 
them  anything  more  than  a  meagre  return  for  the  wars  which  were 
waged  upon  its  poorly-armed  and  defenceless  inhabitants,  nor  for  the 
myriads,  nay  the  millions,  of  lives  that  were  sacrificed  in  the  Roman 
searches  for  gold.  As  for  the  cost  of  the  metal  to  the  Romans:  it 
was  only  the  cost  of  cutting  so  many  throats.  In  money,  it  cost 
practically  nothing. 

Suetonius,  in  his  life  of  Julius  Csesar,  says  that:  "Having  re- 
nounced all  hope  of  obtaining  for  his  province,  Egypt,"  (a  gold- 
mining  country,)  "he  stood  candidate  for  the  office  of  chief-pontiff. 
At  the  expiration  of  his  prcetorship  he  obtained  by  lot  Further 
Spain  and  pacified  his  creditors,  who  were  for  detaining  him,  by  find- 
ing sureties  for  his  debts."  Further  Spain  was  Hispania  Ba^tica.  He 
got  this  office  B.  C.  61.  According  to  Appian,  he  owed,  when  lu 
went  thither,  to  use  his  own  words:  "Bis  millies  et  quingenties 
centena  niillia  sibi  adesse  oportere,  ut  nihil  haberet,"  /.  c,  he  was 
nearly  2,020.000  sesterces  worse  tiian  penniless. 


82  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

"  Being  now  supported  by  the  influence  of  his  father-in-law,  Lucius 
Piso,  and  son-in-law,  Cneius  Pompey,  he  made  choice,  among  all  the 
provinces  of  Gaul,  of  the  one  most  likely  to  furnish  him  with  means 
and  occasions  for  triumphs.  At  first,  indeed,  he  received  only  Cis- 
Alpine  Gaul  "  (the  gold  regions  of  Italy)  ''with  the  addition  of  II- 
lyricum  "  (another  gold  region)  "through  a  decree  proposed  by  Va- 
tinius  to  the  people  ;  but  soon  afterwards  he  obtained  from  the  Senate, 
Gallia  Comata, "  (the  most  auriferous  region  of  France)  ' '  the  senators 
being  apprehensive  that  if  they  refused  it  to  him,  it  would  be  granted 
to  him  by  the  people,"  (in  the  Comitia. )  It  will  be  observed  that 
Caesar  successively  tried  to  get  control  of  all  the  great  gold  re- 
gions, or  rather  what  were  then  esteemed  to  be  great  gold  regions, 
namely:  Egypt,  Spain,  Piedmont,  and  Gaul;  and  that  he  actually 
got  three  out  of  four  of  them.  In  Gaul  he  imposed  "an  annual 
tribute  of  forty  million  sesterces,"  after  plundering  the  country  of 
all  the  treasure  it  contained:  an  intolerable  exaction. 

"With  the  money  raised  from  spoils  of  war,  he  began  to  construct  a 
new  Forum,  the  ground  plot  of  which  cost  him  forty  million  sester- 
ces." Upon  entering  Rome  after  the  Civil  War:  "To  every  foot 
soldier  in  his  veteran  legions,  besides  the  2000  sesterces  paid  him  in 
the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War,  he  gave  20,000  more  in  the  shape  of 
prize  money.  He  likewise  allotted  to  his  veterans,  lands,  but  not  in 
continuity,  that  the  former  owners  might  not  be  entirely  dispos- 
sessed. "  To  the  people  of  Rome,  besides  10  modii  of  corn  and  as 
many  pounds  of  oil,  he  gave  300  sesterces  per  man,  which  he  had 
formerly  promised  them  and  100  more  to  each  for  the  delay  in  ful- 
filling his  promise.  He  likewise  remitted  a  year's  tax  due  to  the 
Treasury  for  such  houses  in  Rome  as  did  not  (could  not  afford  to) 
pay  above  2000  sesterces  taxes  a  year;  and  throughout  the  rest  of 
Italy, for  all  such  as  did  not  exceed  in  taxes. 500  sesterces  each.  To 
all  this  he  added  a  public  entertainment  and  a  distribution  of  meat 
and — after  his  Spanish  victory,'  ( B.  C.  46)  "two  public  dinners: 
because,  considering  the  first  one  as  too  sparing  and  unsuited  to  his 
profuse  liberality,  he,  five  days  later,  added  a  second  one,  which  was 
most  plentiful.  It  is  likewise  reported  that  he  invaded  Britain  in 
\  \  the  hopes  of  finding  pearls."    His  favourite  mistress  was  Servilia, 

the  mother  of  Marcus  Brutus,  "for  whom  he  purchased,  in  his  first 
consulship,  after  the  commencement  of  their  intrigue,  a  pearl  which 
cost  him  six  millions  of  sesterces.    He  practised  no  abstinence  in  pe- 

^''  These  appear  to  be  what  would  now  be  called  feudal  tenures.  See,  on  Roman 
feudalism,  Del  Mar's  "Ancient  Britain." 


SPAIN     AND    (lAUL.  83 

cuniary  matters,  cither  in  Iiis  military  commands  or  civil  offices;  for 
we  have  the  testimony  of  some  writers  that  he  extorted  money,  from 
the  proconsul  who  was  his  predecessor  in  Spain,  and  from  the  Roman 
allies  in  that  district,  for  the  discharge  of  his  debts;  and  that  he 
plundered  at  the  point  of  the  sword  some  towns  in  Lusitania,  not- 
withstanding they  attempted  no  resistance  and  opened  their  gates  to 
him  upon  his  arrival  before  them.  In  Gaul  he  rifled  the  temples  and 
chapels  of  the  gods, which  were  filled  with  rich  offerings,"  (as  Cortes 
afterwards  did  in  Mexico  and  Pizarro  in  Peru)  "and  demolished 
cities  oftener  for  the  sake  of  their  spoil  than  for  any  ill  they  had  done. 
By  these  means,  gold"  (meaning  no  doubt  jewelry-gold  and  there- 
fore alloyed  or  impure  gold)  "became  so  plentiful  with  him  that  he 
exchanged  it  throughout  Italy  and  the  provinces,  for  3000  sesterces 
the  pound.  In  his  first  consulship  he  purloined  from  the  Capitol  3000 
pounds  weight  of  gold  and  substituted  for  it  the  same  quantity  of 
gilt  brass.  For  gold  he  also  sold  to  foreign  nations  and  princes  the 
titles  of  allies  and  kings;  and  in  the  name  of  Pompeyand  himself  he 
sqeezed  out  of  Ptolemy  alone  nearly  6000  talents.  He  afterwards 
supported  the  expense  of  the  Civil  Wars  and  of  his  triumphs  and 
public  spectacles,  by  the  most  flagrant  rapine  and  sacrilege."  Sue- 
tonius omits  to  add  that  besides  the  3000  pounds  weight  of  which 
CiEsar  robbed  the  Treasury  during  his  first  consulship, he  afterwards 
plundered  it  of  15.000  pounds  weight  of  gold,  30,000  pounds  weight 
of  silver,  and  300,000  sesterces  in  coin.  " 

There  is  a  class  of  pretended  philosophers  who  never  condescend 
to  read  history  or  to  study  law,  who  are  ignorant  of  mining,  who 
know  nothing  of  metallurgy,  who  could  neither  mix  an  alloy,  nor 
fabricate  nor  assay  a  coin,  yet  who  know  all  about  the  precious 
metals  and  their  influence  upon  the  economy  of  the  world.  These 
sciolists  reply  to  all  questions  by  means  of  a  formula.  The  formula 
is  "cost  of  production."  If  you  ask  them  what  was  the  value  of  the 
gold  of  which  Cccsar  robbed  the  temples  of  S|iain  and  Gaul,  their 
reply  W'dl  be  "the  cost  of  its  production."  That  cost  was  in  fact 
some  millions  of  human  lives,  some  rivers  of  human  tears,  some 
oceans  of  human  blood,  some  immeasurable  measure  of  human  an- 
guish.     Such  was  the  cost  of  gold  to  Rome  in  P>.  C.  48. 

The  precious  metals  production  of  Gaul  or  France  in  modern  days 
has  been  inconsiderable,  and  is  limited  at  the  present  time  to  about 
half  a  million  ounces  of  silver;  no  gold  at  all  being  fouiul. 

'*  riiny.  XXXIII,  17. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PLUNDER  OF  EUROPE  BY  THE  ROMANS. 

Lack  of  a  satisfactory  history  of  the  Roman  Commonwealth — Defects  of  Belot's  work 
— False  principles  deduced  by  Adam  Smith — Early  history  of  Rome — Civil  Code — 
Corporations — Monetary  System — Its  beneficent  working  interrupted  by  the  Oriental 
Conquests  of  Alexander  and  Seleucus — Rome  led  by  their  example — Roman  conquest 
and  plunder  of  Carthage,  Spain,  and  Greece,  B.  C.  300  to  150 — Religious  impostures 
employed  in  these  wars — Rise  of  prices  in  Rome — Its  important  consequences — Hal- 
cyon Age — Elevation  of  religious  ideals — Legislative  reforms — Celebrated  juriscon- 
sults— East  Indian  trade — Shipping — Military  engines — War  horses — Organization 
and  strength  of  the  army — Arbitration — Treasury — Trade  guilds — Public  works — 
Edifices — Aqueducts — Post-houses — Canals — Canal  locks — Sewers — Roads — Theatres 
— Basilica; — Mechanical  arts — Chariots — Harvesters — Threshers — Steel  plows — Steel 
drills — Silos — Carriages — Embroider)- — Linen  underwear — Musical  organs — Public 
bakeries — Sulphur  matches — Stamp  mills — ^Mine-pumps — Booming  apparatus — Mica 
window-panes — Loadstones — Polarization  of  iron — Steam  engines — Sphericity  of  the 
earth — Measurement  of  a  meridian — Armillary  sphere — Gnomon — Charts — Sun-dials 
— Clocks — Plants,  fruits,  vegetables,  and  flowers — Rise  of  the  medical  profession — 
Literature — Historj' — Agriculture — Philosophy — Oratory — Rhetoric- -Commercial  in- 
stitutes— Banks — Safe  deposits — Accounts — Tablets — The  drama — Poetrj' — Sudden 
arrest  of  the  elements  of  progress — Fall  of  prices — End  of  Halcyon  Age — Civil  wars 
— Fall  of  the  Commonwealth  and  Rise  of  the  Empire. 

WHEN  Augustus  destroyed  the  ancient  literature  of  Rome  he 
committed  to  twenty  centuries  of  oblivion  the  most  prosperous 
age  of  the  Commonwealth.  In  vain  did  the  court  annalists  substitute 
the  fabulous  adventures  of  Romulus,  borrowed  from  Fabius  Pictor  and 
Diodes;  in  vain  did  the  court  poets  invent  the  myths  of  ^neas  and 
Anchises;  in  vain  have  modern  historians,  following  these  mislead- 
ing guides,  sought  to  distil  from  fables  the  sources  of  Roman  prog- 
ress and  of  Roman  power.  The  history  of  the  Commonwealth  has 
yet  to  be  written;  and  to  him  who  shall  body  it  forth  from  the  scant 
materials  that  time  and  superstition  have  left  unmarred,  there  will 
probably  appear  no  more  brilliant  period  in  the  annals  of  man  than 
the  one  which  is  made  the  subject  of  the  present  sketch. 

In  a  recent  work,  the  author,  Mr.  E.  Belot,  alludes  in  its  title  to 
what  he  terms  the  "Revolution  economique  et  monetaire  qui  eut 
lieu  a  Rome  au  milieu  du  IIP  siecle  avant  1'  ere  chretienne;  "  but 
while  he  fully  accounts  for  this  great  social  revolution  he  omits  to 
adequately  describe  it  or  paint  its  consequences.     He  claims  that  in 


UNlv 

PLUNDKk    OK    KLROPK    HV    THK    ROMANS.  1 

consequence  of  the  vast  spoils  of  gold  and  silver  which  emptied  into 
Rome  from  the  conquest  of  the  Levant  and  Orient,  prices  rose  in  a 
comparatively  brief  period  to  ten  times  their  former  height;  so  that 
what  was  previously  bought  with  an  ace,  had  now  to  be  purchased 
with  a  denarius.  But  he  neglects  to  show  to  what  tremendous  social 
results  this  rise  in  prices  led.  Yet  it  is  in  these  results,  rather  than  in 
the  mere  rise  of  prices  by  itself,  that  posterity  is  chiefly  interested. 

It  has  been  claimed  by  Dr.  Adam  Smith  and  it  is  still  claimed  by 
his  school  (that  is  to  say, the  duke  of  Buccleugh's  school)  and  by  the 
commercial  communities  who  have  been  unconsciously  trained  in 
that  school,  that  when  money  is  made  of  the  precious  metals  prices 
cannot  be  raised  by  increasing  the  currency,  because  redundant  coins 
will  be  e.xported,  or  melted  down  into  the  arts.  Their  view  is  that 
it  is  not  the  Volume  of  money  that  influences  commerce:  but  com- 
merce that  influences  the  Volume  of  money.  This  subject  has  been 
fully  discussed  in  another  place.  *  Dr.  Smith's  doctrine  is  not  only 
opposed  by  the  events  which  followed  the  Plunder  of  America  and 
by  many  other  events  of  like  character  which  have  happened  since 
that  time:  it  is  contradicted  by  the  very  examples  which  that  learned 
but  sophistical  Scotchman  adduced  in  its  support. 

During  the  early  Commonwealth  the  political  affairs  of  Rome  wre 
managed  with  a  degree  of  skill  and  prudence  that  wholly  belies  the 
story  of  her  evolution  from  a  band  of  Latin  or  Alban  adventurers. 
Rather  does  it  point  to  an  organized  colony  from  some  old  and  well 
ordered  State,  such  as  the  Spaniards  sent  to  Florida  or  the  French  to 
Louisiana;  a  colony  carrying  from  some  mother  country  a  long  estab- 
lished Religion  and  Code  of  Civil  Laws.  Rome's  peculiarity  as  a  colony 
chiefly  consisted  in  the  early  establishment  of  a  Code  of  Civil  Law 
and  an  ideal  Monetary  System ;  not  the  unwieldly  coi)per  ingots  which 
bespeak  political  senility  and  which  Pliny  borrowed  from  the  Etrus- 
cans and  blunderingly  fitted  to  a  newly  seated  community,  but  such 
a  system  as  Plato  ilreamcd  in  his  Model  Republic;  such  a  system 
in  short  as  a  model  colony  would  most  likely  wish  to  try  in  a  new 
Elysium. 

This  system  has  been  fully  described  elsewhere.  In  brief,  it  was 
an  emission  of  State  notes  forming  a  measure  of  value — (mensura 
publica) — the  notes  being  printed  (stamped)  on  cojiper  bronze 
owned  by  the  State,  and  issued  by  and  for  the  purposes  of  the  State, 
which  regulated  the  volume  of  money  and  by  that  means  ensured  the 
stability  of  prices  and  the  equitable  diffusion  of  wealth  and  advant- 
'  Del  Mar's  "Science  of  Money,"  ed.  1900,  chap.  .\vi. 


86  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

age.  The  copper  bronze  pieces  were  greatly  overvalued,  they  were 
executed  with  the  highest  resources  of  art,  they  were  stamped  with 
the  emblems  of  government  and  religion,  and  it  was  made  a  sacri- 
lege to  counterfeit  them.  Somewhat  similar  systems  had  been  tried 
before  in  Sparta,  Byzantium,  and  Clazomens,  but  from  one  cause 
or  another  they  had  failed.  The  Romans,  guided  by  Plato's  masterly 
advice  on  the  subject,  were  to  try  again  and  succeed.  ^ 

Gibbon,  though  he  may  not  have  grasped  all  the  sources  of  Rome's 
prosperity  during  the  Commonwealth,  never-theless,  thus  tersely  sums 
up  the  result:  "  From  the  establishment  of  equal  freedom  to  the  end 
of  the  Punic  Wars  the  City  was  never  disturbed  by  sedition  and  rarely 
polluted  with  atrocious  crimes."  ^  It  was  her  Numerical  System  of 
Money  that  enabled  Rome  not  only  to  establish  civil  freedom,  but 
to  maintain  it,  and  to  keep  herself,  so  long  as  she  preferred  such  a 
course,  free  from  foreign  entanglements.  It  was  this  system  that 
preserved  the  equality  of  fortune  which  distinguished  her  citizens  in 
the  earlier  ages  of  the  Republic.  And  it  was  this  system  that  placed 
her  always  in  a  position  to  take  advantage  of  the  blunders  or  mis- 
fortunes of  her  neighbours.  The  history  of  Rome,  down  to  the 
period  when  the  whole  of  Italy  was  added  to  her  sway,  is  that  of  a 
State,  or  of  a  people,  consisting  of  various  antagonistic  elements, 
yet  acting  with  a  harmony  which  is  inexplicable  under  any  other 
than  a  Numerical  system  of  money.  The  solidarity,  the  discipline, 
the  unselfishness,  the  patriotism,  the  stubborn  courage  and  exalted 
firmness  exhibited  by  the  Romans  in  the  memorable  series  of  con- 
flicts, in  which  she  engaged  with  her  neighbours,  are  inconceivable 
under  political  systems  which  inequitably  or  unequally  dispense  the 
favours  of  fortune.  Such  qualities  have  never  since  been  exhibited 
by  any  other  people:  not  even  by  the  Romans  themselves.  And  it 
is  safe  to  predict  that  they  will  never  again  be  exhibited  until  a  like 
Institution  of  Equity  is  made  to  form  the  foundation  of  the  social 
and  political  structure. 

Unfortunately,  the  very  success  which  resulted,  as  we  believe, 
from  the  working  of  this  Institution,  indirectly  proved  to  be  the 
cause  of  its  downfall.  Alexander  and  Seleucus  had  plundered  India 
and  Persia:  for  a  time  they  had  cut  off  the  Oriental  trade  of  Egypt 
and  Carthage.  The  Greek  States,  though  enriched  with  the  spoils 
of  the  East  and  in  possession  of  the  gates  to  its  lucrative  commerce, 

'■^  The  experiments  of  the  Greek  States  and  Colonies  with  Numerical  moneys  and  the 
Numerical  System  of  Plato  appejfr  in  the  author's  "  History  of  Monetary  Systems." 
^Gibbon,  "  Decline  and  Fall,"  ch.  XL. 


PLUNDKK    OK    KUROPt    HV     THE    ROMANS.  87 

could  not  be  brought  to  unite  together.  Here  was  Rome's  oppor- 
tunity, not  merely  to  conquer  the  Levant,  but  tlie  World.  It  was 
this  attempt  that  brought  into  her  coffers  the  accumulated  spoils  of 
ages  and  it  was  out  of  these  spoils  that  a  Metallic  system  arose  to 
the  prejudice  and  ruin  of  the  Numerical.  Another  circumstance 
which  contributed  to  the  downfall  of  the  latter  was  the  presence  of 
Hannibal's  army  in  Italy  during  the  Second  Punic  War.  "Soldiers 
on  furlough,"  (says  Livy,  xxiii,  29)  "generally  carried  money  in 
their  purses  for  the  purpose  of  trading. "  With  a  considerable  portion 
of  Italy  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy  and  the  very  existence  of  the  Re- 
public in  jeojiardy,  it  is  evident  that  the  soldiers  could  buy  no  sup- 
plies from  the  peasants  with  Numerical  money.  When  the  State  is 
in  danger  of  falling,  every  institute  must  correspondingly  fail  which 
depends  upon  the  credit  of  the  State.  With  Hannibal's  army  at  the 
gates  of  Rome,  the  Numerical  System  virtually  came  to  an  end. 

Before  we  enlarge  upon  the  Plunder  of  Europe,  there  is  another 
Roman  institution  whose  regulation  exercised  a  tremendous  influ- 
ence upon  her  affairs  and  which  deserves  some  mention  in  this  place. 
The  creation  of  Corporations  both  religious  and  commercial  was  an 
ecclesiastical  device  which  can  be  traced  back  to  the  period  which 
invented  the  mythical  Numa.  During  the  fourth  century  before  our 
£era,  the  Roman  people  evidently  suffered  from  the  existence  of 
these  artificial  bodies;  for  among  the  measures  of  this  period,  B.  C. 
306,  was  an  act  which  swept  out  of  existence  both  religious  and  com- 
mercial corporations,  new  or  old.  *  It  must  therefore  be  understood 
that  during  the  Halcyon  Period  which  we  are  about  to  describe, 
there  were  neither  Corporations  nor  Trusts  to  rob  the  private  citizen 
of  the  fruits  of  his  industry,  or  to  screen  him  from  that  personal  re- 
sponsibility which  more  than  aught  else  promotes  commercial  integ- 
rity, stimulates  commercial  enterprise,  and  furnishes  the  foundation 
of  commercial  credit.  From  this  digression  we  return  to  the  Plunder 
of  Europe. 

"Between  the  years  B.  C.  320  and  B.  C.  250  when  they  defeated 
Hasdrubal,  the  Romans  conquered  the  whole  of  Magna  Grcecia  and 
Sicily,  together  with  the  islands  of  Sardinia,  Corsica  and  Malta.  The 
defeat  of  Phyrrhus  and  Hasdrubal,  both  of  whom  carried  valuable 
military  chests,  the  spoil  of  the  rich  city  of  Tarentum  and  its  14 
subject  towns,  the  plunder  of  the  silver  mines  of  Sardinia  '  and  sack 
of  the  opulent  Carthaginian  towns  of  Sicily,  brought  a  considerable 

*  "  Histonof  Monetan*  Systems." 

'  The  author's  "  History  of  the  I'recious  .Metals,"  ed.  i88c,  pp.  7  and  21. 


88  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

quantity  of  silver  into  Rome;  and  as  this  metal  seems  to  have  been 
especially  coveted  by  the  victorious  commanders  for  their  personal 
share  of  the  spoil,  it  fell  chiefly  into  their  hands,  or  that  of  the 
patrician  families  to  whom  such  commanders  belonged."  " 

To  those  who  brought  large  spoil  into  the  Roman  treasury  was 
awarded  the  glory  of  a  triumph,  or  such  other  distinctions  and  ad- 
vantages as  the  State  could  afford;  to  those  who  brought  none,  was 
awarded  obscurity  or  disgrace.  Under  such  stimuli  the  Roman  com- 
manders vied  with  each  other  in  filling  the  public  coffers.  Nothing 
was  permitted  to  stand  in  their  way.  Whole  nations  were  put  to  the 
sword:  neither  age  nor  sex  were  spared;  death,  fire  and  pillage 
spread  from  Rome  to  the  confines  of  the  Levantine  world ;  whilst 
back  to  Rome,  as  to  a  common  centre,  flowed  the  blood-stained 
metals  whose  acquisition  involved  this  fearful  havoc.  There  was  but 
one  object  in  the  soldier's  mind;  that  object  was  gold  and  silver,  no 
matterat  what  cost  of  dishonour  or  crime.  The  worst  passions  were  let 
loose.  Cupidity  reigned  paramount.  Altars  were  raised  in  the  cities 
and  little  children  were  taught  to  kneel  and  pray  to  Jove  predatori 
— the  god  of  plunder.  ' 

In  B.  C.  293  Papirius  Cursor  bore  in  his  triumph  over  2,000,000 
Roman  pounds  weight  of  bronze,  and  330,000  pounds  weight  of 
silver.  ''  It  was  probably  this  spoil  and  that  of  the  following  twenty 
years,  when  Pyrrhus  was  defeated,  that  led  to  the  new  coinage  of 
silver  in  B.  C.  269. 

In  B.  C.  241,  at  the  close  of  the  First  Punic  War,  Lutatius  Catul- 
us  obtained,  under  treaty  with  Carthage,  a  bond  covenanting  to  pay 
2200  Attic  talents  talents  of  silver  annually  for  20  years.  In  addition 
to  this,  the  Roman  Comitia  demanded  1000  talents  which  Carthage 
consented  to  pay  down.  ' 

At  that  period,  when  the  coining  press  was  unknown,  the  work  of 
coinage  was  done  altogether  by  the  hammer,  shears  and  file.  A 
workman  could  scarcely  finish  more  than  twenty  coins  per  day.  Owing 
to  this  circumstance,  though  bullion  was  plentiful,  coined  money  at 
times  was  scarce;  and  we  read  in  Livy,  of  an  occasion,  B.  C.  218, 
when  temporary  loans  were  resorted  to  by  the  government  to  meet 
the  immediate  demands  of  the  troops.  This  difficulty  had  to  be 
surmounted  by  adding  as  rapidly  as  possible  to  the  active  force  of 
moneyers. 

In  B.  C.  212  M.  Manlius  Marcellus  captured  Syracuse,  with  im- 

*  The  author's  "  History  of  Money  in  Ancient  States,"  p.  246.         ■■  Blanqui,  48. 
^Livy,  X,  46.  'Lenglet  de  Fresnoy,  i,  426;  Polybius,  i,  62,  69,  88;  iii,  27. 


PLUNUKK    OK    KUROFE    11 Y    THK    ROMANS.  89 

mense  spoil  of  gold,  silver,  statues,  paintings,  and  otiier  works 
of  art.  '° 

In  B.  C.  309  Fabius  Maxiiniis  retook  Tarentuni,  with  87,000  pounds 
weight  of  gold,  a  vast  ([uaniityof  silver  bullion  and  coins,  thousands 
of  statues  and  i)ictures  and  30.000  slaves.  " 

In  r>.  C.  208  Tublius  Cornelius  Scipio  cai)tured  in  Spain  and  car- 
rieil  to  the  treasury  in  Rome  14,342  pountls  weight  of  silver  and  of 
coinetl  silver,  "a  great  sum."  '■ 

In  I>.  C".  202,  at  the  close  of  the  Second  Punic  War,  Scipio  con- 
tributed to  the  Roman  Treasury  the  bond  of  Carthage  to  i)ay  10,000 
talents  of  silver  within  30  years,  besides  25,000  pounds  weight  of 
silver  down  antl  avast  numbt-r  <>f  ships,  elephants  and  implements  of 
war.  At  his  triumph  he  covered  into  the  treasury  123,000  pounds 
weight  of  silver.  " 

But  these  were  the  least  of  Scipio's  spoils.  Before  he  defeated 
Hannibal  at  Zama  he  had  overrun  the  whole  of  Spain,  which  of  all 
the  countries  of  the  then  known  world  was  richest  in  the  precious 
metals  and  in  slaves  to  work  them.  Bebulo  alone  hatl  furnished 
Hannibal  with  300  pounds  weight  of  silver  daily.  What  it  was  made 
to  yield  under  the  stimulus  of  the  encomienda  system  and  the  Roman 
lash  we  are  not  informed.  '*  In  his  trial,  which  took  place  in  B.  C. 
190,  Scipio  expressed  his  indignation  in  being  accused  of  embezzling 
four  million  sesterces,  after  having  paid,  as  he  said,  200  millions  into 
the  treasury.  Such  was  tiie  j)ublic  gratitude  to  Scipio  for  bringing 
this  long  war  to  a  conclusion,  such  the  elatioii  created  by  his  brilliant 
success  and  the  triumph  that  marked  it,  and  such  the  effect  of  the 
example  of  Alexander  the  (Ireat,  who  had  set  himself  up  for  a  god, 
that  Scipio,  too,  claimed  the  honours  of  divinity.  This  impious  pre- 
tensiiMi  was  made  in  B.  C.  201,  during  the  consulate  of  Cn.  Cornelius 
Lentulus,  one  of  his  own  gens  and  P.,-Elius  Pietus,  his  intimate  friend. 
Happily  for  Rome,  it  still  had  a  Cato  to  expose  imposture  and  pun- 
ish impiety.  '* 

In  1'..  C.  199  Lucius  Manlius  Acidinus  returned  from  his  procon- 
sulship  of  Spain  and  covered  into  the  Roman  treasury  1200  ])ounds 
weiglit  of  silver  and  200  pounds  weight  of  gold.  " 

'*  I. ivy,  xxv,  40;  XXVI.  21;  Dunlop,  11,  157.  "  I. ivy,  xxvii,  i(>. 

"  Livy,  xxviii,  38.  '^  I. ivy,  XXX,  37. 

"The  Spanish- American  encomienda  system  of  the  ifith  century  consisted  of  jjrants 
of  vassals  (or  slaves)  to  the  conquerors  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  its  origin 
was  Roman.     It  is  fully  explained  further  on  in  the  text. 

'*  The  account  of  Scipio's  imposture  is  given  by  Aulus  Gellius,  out  of  Oppius  and 
Hyginus.    Alexander  was  deiliiil  in  P..  C  332.  '*Livy,  xwii,  -. 


go  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

In  B.  C.  196  Titus  Quintius  Flamininus  returned  from  the  con- 
quest of  Thessaly  and  Epirus  with  an  enormous  quantity  of  "  armour, 
weapons,  and  bronze  and  marble  statues,  of  which  he  had  taken 
greater  numbers  from  Philip,  than  from  the  States  of  Greece.  On 
the  second  day  (of  his  triumph)  appeared  the  gold  and  silver,  wrought, 
unwrought  and  coined.  Of  unwrought  silver  there  were  18,000 
pounds  weight  and  of  wrought,  270,000  pounds,  consisting  of  ves- 
sels, (mostly  engraved,)  several  of  exquisite  workmanship;  also  many 
others  of  bronze,  and  ten  shields  of  silver.  The  coined  silver 
amounted  to  84,000  Attic  tetradrachmas,  Containing  each  four  den- 
arii. Of  gold  there  were  3714  pounds  (weight)  and  one  shield  of 
solid  gold,  and  of  gold  Philipusses  (coins)  14,514.  On  the  third  day 
were  carried  114  gold  crowns  presented  by  the  various  States."  ''' 

In  B.  C.  192,  two  years  before  the  trial  above  mentioned,  Scipio 
concluded  a  treaty  with  King  Antiochus,  which  provided  that  the 
latter  should  pay  15,000  Euboean  talents  of  silver;  500  down,  2500 
upon  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  by  the  Senate,  and  1000  annually 
for  twelve  years.  It  was  especially  in  relation  to  this  transaction 
that  Scipio  was  afterwards  charged  with  embezzlement.  '* 

In  B.  C.  192  Manius  Acilius  returned  from  his  proconsulship  of 
^tolia  and  covered  into  the  Roman  treasury  "3000  pounds  weight 
of  silver  bullion,  113,000  Attic  tetradrachmas,  248,000  cistophoruses 
and,  of  chased  silver  vessels,  a  great  number.  He  bore  also  the 
King's  plate,  furniture  and  splendid  wardrobe,  also  golden  crowns  and 
presents  from  45  allied. States,  together  with  spoils  of  all  kinds."  " 

In  B.  C.  189  Marcus  Fulvius  returned  from  the  conquest  of  yEtolia 
and  Cephalenia  with  243,112  pounds  weight  of  gold,  83,000  pounds 
weight  of  silver,  118,000  Attic  tetradrachmas,  12,422  gold  Philipusses, 
besides  other  spoil,  among  which  were  285  bronze  statues,  230  marble 
statues,  together  with  arms,  weapons,  catapults,  ballistas  and  engines 
of  various  kinds.  ^'' 

In  B.  C.  186  Cneius  Manlius  captured  from  the  Gauls  of  Asia 
(the  Galileans)  and  brought  to  Rome,  4603  pounds  weight  of  gold, 
220,000  pounds  weight  of  silver,  127,000  Attic  tetradrachmas,  250, 
000  cistophoruses,  16,320  gold  Philipusses,  together  with  abundance 
of  Gallic  arms  and  spoils  in  chariots.  *' 

"  This  arm^y,  returning  from  Asia,  was  the  origin  of  foreign  luxury 
imported  into  the  City.  These  men  first  brought  to  Rome  gilded 
couches,  rich  tapestry,  with  hangings  and  other  works  ot  the  loom, 

"  Livy,  XXXIV,  52.  "^  Livy,  xxxviii,  38,  55.  "  Livy,  xxxvii,  41. 

'"  Livy,  xxxix,  5.  "  Livy,  xxxix,  7. 


PI.LNDKR    OK     KlKOl'K     HV      IHK     kl>MA^•>^.  9I 

and,  what  were  then  deemed,  magnificent  furniiure,  buttcts  and 
single-footed  tables.  At  entertainnients  likewise  were  introducetl 
players  on  the  harp  and  cimbrel,  with  buffoons  for  tiie  diversion  of 
the  guests.  Their  meats  began  also  to  be  prepared  with  greater 
care  and  cost;  while  the  cook,  whom  the  ancients  considered  as  the 
meanest  of  their  slaves,  both  as  to  value  ami  use,  rose  into  great 
estimation.  Nevertheless  these  instances  of  extravagance,  as  they 
were  then  deemed,  were  no  more  than  the  seeds  of  that  greater  lux- 
ury which  was  afterwards  to  spring  up."" 

In  B.  C.  182  Terentius  entered  Rome  in  ovation  for  his  success  in 
Hither  Spain,  carrying  93J0  pountls  weight  of  silver,  eighty  pounds 
weight  of  gold  and  two  golden  crowns  weighing  67  pounds.  " 

In  B.  C.  iSi  Lucius  ..-^-'milius  Paulus  triumphed  over  the  Ligurians 
and  carried  25  golden  crowns  in  the  procession.  He  distributed  300 
aces  to  each  soldier.  "    This  must  have  agregated  an  immense  sum. 

In  B.  C.  179  "  Sempronius  (iracchus  triumphed  over  the  Celt- 
Iberians  and  their  allies;  next  day  Lucius  Posthumius  Albinus  tri- 
umphed over  the  Lusitanians  and  the  other  Spaniards  in  that  vicin- 
ity. Tiberius  Gracchus  carried  in  the  procession  20.000  pounds 
weight  of  silver,  and  Albinus  40,000.  They  distributed  to  each  of 
their  soldiers  25  denarii,  double  to  a  centurion,  trijile  to  a  horseman; 
and  the  same  sums  to  the  allies  as  to  the  Roman."  ^^  These  pay- 
ments are  colossal. 

In  B.  C.  167  Lucius  .^milius  Paulus  having  completed  the  con- 
quest of  Macedonia,  brought  to  Rome  in  gold  and  silver  no  less  than 
120  million  sesterces,  besides  immense  spoil  of  furniture  and  works 
of  art,  the  gold  and  silver  alone  filling  150  wagt)ns.  '"  Besides  this,  he 
levied  tribute  on  the  inhabitants  of  Macedonia  and  ajipropriated  all 
the  gold  and  silver  mines  of  the  kingdom.  ''  In  a  single  hour,  says 
Plutarch,  and  by  a  preconcerted  signal,  this  plunderer  sacked  70 
cities  and  reduced  150,000  Greeks  to  slavery.  Suc!i  was  the  magni- 
tude of  the  spoil  that,  after  rewarding  the  entire  army,  enough  re- 
mained to  absolve  the  citizens  of  R(jme  from  the  payment  of  taxes 
until  the  period  of  Julius  Ccesar. 

In   B.  C.  169   Lucius  Anicius   conquered    Illyria  and   brought   to 

"  I. ivy,  xxxix,  6. 

**  I. ivy,  XI.,  16.  So  says  the  text;  but  the  meaninji  is  probably  that  the  two  crowns 
contained  as  much  "gold  as  there  was  in  67  "  libras  "  of  jji)ld.  This  would  make  the 
crowns  weigh  about  five  Roman  pounds  each.   Cf.  "  Hist.  Monetary  Systems,"  p.  57. 

'*  Livy,  XI.,  34.  "*  I-i%T.  xii.  7-  **  I-ivy,  xi.v,  40.      Klanqui,  49. 

"  .\mold's,  Ilist.  Rom.  i,  17:  Hist.  Money  .Vnc.  2S2  n.  These  were  the  spoils  of 
Asia  which  had  been  brought  into  Macedon  by  .Alexander  the  Great, 


g2  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Rome  72  pounds  weight  of  gold,  19  pounds  weight  of  silver,  3000 
Roman  denarii  and  120,000  Illyrian  denarii,  besides  other  valuable 
spoil.  " 

These  instances  might  be  greatly  multiplied  ;  but  it  is  unnecessary. 
All  who  have  written  on  the  subject,  both  Romans,  medievals  and 
moderns,  have  united  in  testifying  to  the  vast  flood  of  wealth,  es- 
pecially of  the  precious  metals,  which  flowed  into  Rome  after  the 
campaigns  of  Alexander  and  Seleucus  and  especially  between  the 
first  and  third  Punic  wars.  "  So  abundant  was  money  at  that  period 
(B.  C.  186)  that  the  people  assessed  themselves  for  a  contribution  to 
L.  Scipio  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  games  which  he  celebrated. "  ^^ 
The  following  passages  appear  in  Livy;  either  upon  his  own  author- 
ity or  that  of  Cato  the  consul,  or  Lucius  Valerius,  the  tribune:  "The 
public  prosperity  is  daily  increasing. "  ....  "  The  Commonwealth 
daily  grows  more  prosperous  and  happy."  ....  "We  have  begun 
to  handle  even  royal  treasures."  ....  "The  Commonwealth  is 
flourishing  and  happy."  ....  "  Every  class  of  persons,  every  in- 
dividual, feels  the  improvement  in  the  State."  ....  "  The  Oppian 
law  (restricting  the  use  of  gold  in  the  arts,  etc.,)  was  repealed  within 
twenty  years  after  it  was  enacted."  ^^  Both  Tiberius,  Livy  and  Taci- 
tus trace  to  this  period  the  birth  of  luxury;  Pliny  curses  both  the 
gold  and  silver  that  in  the  end  brought  in  their  train  so  many  evils 
to  Rome;  Bodin,  Davenant,  Barthelemy,  Garnier,  Letronne,  Guerard 
and  Lacour-Gayet  descant  upon  the  enormous  spoil  and  the  increase 
of  money  which  marked  the  period;  whilst  Dupre  de  St.  Maur,  Rome 
d'  Lisle,  Dureau  de  la  Malle  and  Belot  attempt  to  measure  the  rise 
of  prices  and  trace  some  of  its  effects  upon  the  body  politic.  How- 
ever wrongly  gained,  this  much  must  be  said  of  the  Roman  spoil :  it 
was  widely  and  rapidly  diffused.  Neither  crown  nor  church  pos- 
sessed at  that  period,  as  they  did  at  later  ones,  the  power  to  take  tlie 
first  and  best  fruits  of  the  spolia  opima.  The  public  requirements 
were  first  satisfied,  the  gods  were  appeased  with  sacrifices  and  games, 
the  temples  were  propitiated  with  generous  donations,  the  taxes  were 
remitted  and  the  remainder  of  the  spoil  was  distributed  to  the  sol- 
diery. Ten,  twenty,  forty,  sixty,  and  sometimes  an  hundred  aces, 
sesterces,  or  even  denarii  per  man,  were  successively  paid  to  the 
entire  army. 

In  B.  C.  269-8,  according  to  Pliny,  a  new  coinage  of  silver  was 
authorized;  in  B.  C.  207-6  a  new  coinage  of  gold  was  begun.  In 
these  coinages  the  ratio  of  silver  to  gold  was   10  for  i.      A  Roman 

**  Livy.  XLV,  43.         '"  Pliny,  N.  H.  xxxiii,  48.  ^^  Livy,  xxxiv;  year  B.  C.  193. 


PLUNDKR  OF  EUROPE  RY  THE  ROMANS.  93 

pound  weijjht,  5250  En<(lish  grains,  of  pure  gold, contained  about  the 
same  {luaiuityof  met  .1  as  is  now  contained  in  S225  of  the  Uniietl 
Slates,  or  (roughly)  ^45  sterling.  A  pound  weight  of  silver  was 
worth  by  law  one-tenth  as  much.  The  purchasing  j^ower,  or  value 
of  goUl  anil  silver  coins  (as  against  commodities)  was  far  different 
from  what  it  is  now;  but  this  is  a  matter  with  which  we  have  no 
present  concern. 

To  measure  the  rise  of  prices  which  took  place  during  the  century 
that  intervened  between  the  fall  of  Tarentum  anil  the  destruction  of 
Carthage  is  no  easy  matter.  The  chief  difficulty  lies  in  the  fact  that 
in  this  interval  Rome  changed  her  money  from  bronze  aces,  owned 
ab  initio  by  the  State,  to  silver  sesterces,  which  originally  were  pri- 
vate property:  whilst  the  relation  between  them,  not  as  to  the  sepa- 
rate pieces,  but  between  the  total  sum  or  volume  of  the  denomina- 
tions of  one  money,  as  against  the  other,  is  unknown.  The  ne.\t 
difficulty  is  that  the  ancient  authors  quote  but  few  prices.  Finally^ 
the  prices  of  wheat  and  other  breadstuffs,  which  these  authors  have 
preserved,  exhibit  so  little  variation,  as  to  e.xcite  the  suspicion  that 
they  are  not  natural  but  artificial,  that  is  to  say,  that  they  were  fi.ved 
either  by  ma.ximum  law  or  monetary  regulation. 

In  B.  C.  456  Manius  Marcius,  jedile  of  the  people,  was  the  first 
to  supply  Rome  with  wheat-corn  at  one  ace  the  modius  or  peck.  ^' 
In  that  year  and  in  B.  C.  427,  408  and  252,  the  price  of  wheat 
was  always  one  ace  the  modius.  During  the  intervening  periods- 
we  have  no  quotations.  So  unvarying  a  stability  of  prices,  if  such 
it  was,  might  have  resulted  either  from  a  maximum  law,  or  the  sale 
by  the  government  to  the  public,  of  wheat  at  a  fixed  price,  irrespect- 
ive of  cost.  This  policy  belongs  to  the  Imperial  anil  Dark  and  .Mid- 
dle Ages,  when  the  peasant  was  a  slave  and  agriculture  unprogres- 
sive,  rather  than  to  the  Commonwealih  of  Rome,  when  the  peasant 
was  the  peer  of  any  man  and  agriculture  furnished  sur-names  for 
the  families  whose  subsequent  nobility  grew  out  of  its  abundant 
returns.  "  It  is  related  that  at  the  Council  of  Frankfort,  A.  I).  794. 
Charlemagne  proposed  to  permanently  fi.\  the  price  of  grain  at  four 
deniers  the  boisseau,  so  that  it  would  remain  the  same  in  times  both 
of  abundance  and  scarcity.  "  On  the  other  hand,  stability  of  price 
can  be  secured  by  regulating  the  volume  of  the  currency,  the  Nume- 

"  Pliny,  xvni,  4.  "  Pliny,  xvui,  3, 

"  The  boisseau  of  Paris  was  equal  to  about  'j  of  a  bushel;  that  of  Bordeaux,  about 
2*6  bushel.^,  indeed  it  varied  in  every  province  of  Trance.  What  it  was  as  given  in  the 
capitularies  of  Charlemagne  is  uncertain.      Ciarnier.  p.  47. 


^rr 


94  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

rate;  and  there  are  many  proofs  that  such  was,  in  fact,  the  device 
employed  by  the  Romans.  In  the  earlier  history  of  the  Republic 
the  agricultural  class  was  too  powerful  to  permit  of  corn  being  sold 
by  the  State  to  the  public  at  less  than  cost;  and  in  view  of  this  cir- 
cumstance, it  may  be  safely  concluded,  if  corn  fetched  no  more  than 
an  ace  the  modius,  that  such  was  its  full  value.  When  the  Numeri- 
cal System  of  Money  was  overthrown,  when  silver  money  came  into 
common  use  (B.  C.  269)  the  price  of  wheat  rose  to  double.  In  B.  C. 
205,  it  was  2  aces  the  modius;  in  202,  it  was  4  aces;  and  in  201,  it 
was  2  to  2}4  aces  the  modius.  There  are  no  futher  quotations  of 
grain  within  the  period  embraced  by  this  sketch.  ^* 

The  Rise  in  Prices  during  the  third  and  second  centuries  has 
been  traced,  by  Bureau  de  la  Malle,  Garnier  and  Letronne,  in  the 
price  of  a  day's  labour,  in  the  pay  of  soldiers,  the  cost  of  slaves  and 
other  data  to  be  found  in  ancient  authors;  but  the  quotations  are  too 
few  and  far  apart  to  afford  any  safe  general  conclusions  on  the  sub- 
ject. Belot's  comparison  of  the  census  classifications  of  private 
fortunes,  of  the  fines  imposed  by  the  State  for  public  offenses,  and 
of  the  rewards  paid  for  public  services  has  led  to  more  satisfactory 
results,  although  we  cannot  altogether  follow  his  view  of  the  rise  of 
prices.  He  is  of  the  opinion  that  between  the  first  two  Punic  wars 
prices  in  Rome  rose  ten  times.  Our  own  conclusion  are  that  the  in- 
flux and  coinage  of  gold  and  silver  during  the  century  and  a  half 
under  review  resulted  in  an  augmentation  of  prices  amounting  to  not 
dess  than  2^  fold,  (a  new  sesterce  for  an  old  ace)  and  possibly  to 
as  much  as  five  fold,  or  two  sesterces  for  an  ace.    The  proofs  of  such 

^^  In  B.C.  154,  spelt  was  one  ace  the  modius  (no  quotations  of  wheat);  B.C.  126  (Lex 
Sempronia)  wheat  was  supplied  to  the  populace  at  a  fraction  under  the  ancient  price, 
viz.,  at  five-sixth  of  an  ace  the  modius,  evidently  under  cost.  This  was  one  of  the 
celebrated  agrarian  laws  of  the  Gracchi.  It  was  repealed  five  years  later  by  the  Lex 
Octavia.  In  B.  C.  74  (Lex  Cassia)  wheat  was  purchased  by  the  State  at  4  sesterces 
the  modius  and  a  second  quality  at  3  sesterces.  At  the  same  period  4  sesterces  was 
the  price  in  Sicily.  Cicero,  contra  Verres,  iii,  10.  In  B.  C.  65,  (Maximum  law),  wheat 
was  fixed  at  2  sesterces  the  modius;  after  the  great  fire  in  Rome,  A.  D.  64,  Nero  "re- 
duced "  the  price  of  wheat  to  tres  nummos  (three  aces)  the  modius  (Tac.  Ann.  xv,  39); 
in  the  time  of  Martial,  say  A.  D.  73,  wheat  was  4  aces  the  modius  (Ep.  Xil,  76);  in  the 
reign  of  Constantine  wheat  was  10  sesterces  the  modius.  Many  works  have  been  writ- 
ten on  the  subject  of  prices  in  Rome  by  people  who  knew  little  or  nothing  of  its  Nu- 
merical system  of  Money;  and  who  therefore  were  unable  to  reconcile  the  apparent 
contradictions  of  the  classical  texts.  From  one  monetary  theory  Mommsen  deduces 
6j^  aces,  whilst  from  another  theory  Belot  deduces  16  aces,  for  the  modius  of  wheat, 
In  the  time  of  the  Gracchi.  Garnier  admits  a  "  monnaie  de  compte  "  during  the  Re- 
public, but  fails  to  comprehend  its  relation  to  the  Metallic  System  which  supplanted 
it.     Cf.  Pliny,  xviii,  4;  Gibbon  11,  417^. 


PI.UNDKR    OK    EUROPE    UY    THE    ROMANS.  95 

rise  of  prices  do  not  rest  entirely  upon  the  quotations  of  commodi- 
ties, though  these  ah)ne  are  perhaps  sufficient  to  establish  our  con- 
clusion; they  rest  also  upon  that  notorious  increase  of  luxury  which 
furnished  a  theme  for  every  Roman  moralist  from  C'ato  down  to 
Tactitus;  whilst  they  derive  further  corroboration  from  the  continu- 
ally increasing  rewards  of  valour,  of  industry,  and,  it  may  be  atldcd 
also,  of  imposture. 

A  miracle  occurred,  such  a  miracle  as  without  the  aid  of  supersti- 
tion had  never  hapjiened  before  and  has  never  happened  since.  A 
petty  state  of  Italy,  unknown  to  Herodotus  or  Thucydides,  and 
scarcely  mentioned  by  any  Greek  writer  previous  to  the  -Kra  of 
Ale.xander,  "  a  state  which,  if  its  own  annals  are  to  believed,  had 
fought  for  centuries  to  maintain  an  obscure  but  sturdy  independence 
in  the  valley  of  the  Tiber,  suddenly  became  a  continental  power.and 
still  more  suddenly  turned  from  the  mastersliip  of  the  Italian  penin- 
sular to  assume  that  of  world.  Many  ingenious  theories  have  been 
put  forward  to  account  for  this  miracle,  but  none  of  them  have 
proved  quite  satisfactory.  What  enabled  a  few  thousand  Spaniards  to 
to  conquer  the  whole  of  civilized  America?  The  belief  of  the  Ameri- 
cans in  a  Messiah  that  was  to  come,  their  hierarchical  government, 
their  feudal  condition,  their  internal  dissensions,  their  institutions  of 
domestic  slavery.  Both  Columbus, Cortes, Cabe^a  de  Vaca  and  Drake 
lent  themselves  to  the  grave  imposture  of  pretending  to  be  that  ex- 
pected Son  of  God  to  whom  the  natives  of  America  had  been  taught 
to  yield  every  obedience  and  concede  all  the  rights  of  property.  " 
The  Tlascalans  were  employed  by  the  Spaniards  to  subjugate  the 
Mexicans;  the  slaves  who  should  aid  the  Spaniards  were  promised 
freedom;  the  lure  of  the  precious  metals  heated  every  Spaniard's 
mind  to  phrensy  while  it  chilled  his  heart  to  stone.  Such  were  the 
forces  which  won  America  for  the  Spaniards;  and  such,  also,  it  can 
scarcely  be  doubted,  were  the  forces  that  won  Carthage,  Spain, 
Greece,  and  Asia  for  the  Romans.  Scipio  was  not  the  only  military 
commaiuler  who  claimed  the  honours  of  messianic  divinity.  There 
were  others,  both  before  and  after  him.     Alexander  borrowed  the 

"  nerrxlotus,  who  travelled  in  It.ily  about  I?.  C.  4f>o,  makes  no  mention  of  Rome; 
neither  docs  Thucydides,  who  described  the  great  war  between  Athens  and  Sicily,  B.C. 
414.  It  is  tirst  mentioned  by  Theophrastus,  B.  C.  370-287.  Thompson's  Hist.  Rom. 
Literature  p.  330. 

**  P'or  pretensions  and  worship  of  Columbus,  consult  Trving's  life  of  the  jjrcat  cap- 
tain; for  Cortes,  see  Help's  "Spanish  Conquest  in  America,"  ed.  i"i?4.  II,  321,  359; 
for  Cabe^a  de  Vaca,  see  his  voyages  "  Naufragios  "  c.  31;  and  for  Drake  consult 
"  Mineral  Report  of  the  United  States"  ("'  blue  book")  for  1S67,  p.  271.  A  similar 
pretense  appears  in  the  legend  of  Hiawatha. 


96  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

imposture  from  India  and  carried  it  back  to  its  source;  Titus 
Quintius,  Sylla,  Sertorius,  and  others  repeated  it  and  spread  it  over 
the  Empire  from  Armenia  to  Gaul.  AVith  regard  to  slave  eman- 
cipation, the  Romans  in  foreign  wars  always  carried  the  insignia  of 
Liber  Pater;  whilst  in  peace  and  in  Rome  they  hid  them  away.  " 
They  conquered  Spain  with  Gauls,  Carthage  with  Spaniards  and 
Numidians,  and  Greece  with  the  aid  of  the  helots.  In  the  mad  hunt 
for  gold  and  silver  they  stripped  the  living,  they  even  tore  from  the 
bodies  of  the  dead  their  heritage  of  these  ominous  metals.  With 
such  alluring  rewards  for  valour  their  armies  never  lacked  recruits. 
Rome's  Halcyon  period  began  substantially  with  the  spoil  of  Taren- 
tum ;  it  ended  substantially  with  the  spoil  of  Asia  Minor  and  Macedon. 
After  that  period  and  until  Caesar  overran  Gaul  the  influx  of  stolen 
metal  fell  away;  prices  ceased  to  rise;  and  neither  valour,  industry, 
nor  imposture  earnt  more  than  a  scant  reward. 

The  conquest  of  Italy,  Carthage  and  Asia  Minor  brought  to  Rome 
not  only  the  most  precious  products  of  learning  and  art,  it  brought 
also  the  scholars  and  artists.  Moreover  it  drew  to  a  common  focus 
the  philosophy  and  religious  speculations  of  the  world.  The  char- 
acteristic features  of  Christianity,  its  broad  philosophy,  it  recogni- 
tion of  equality  before  the  law  and  the  right  to  liberty,  its  considera- 
tion for  women  and  children,  these  were  not  born  under  the  Empire. 
Their  germs  can  betraced  in  Rome  back  to  the  third  century  before 
our  sera  and  in  Greece  and  the  Orient  to  still  earlier  periods.  They 
distinctively  belong  to  the  Halcyon  Ages  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
The  elevation  of  religious  ideals  is  the  work  of  freedom  and  pros- 
perity; never  of  slavery  and  adversity.  Abundant  supplies  of  money 
no  sooner  made  themselves  felt  in  the  daily  traffic  and  exchanges  of 
the  Romans  than  the  whole  body  politic  awoke  to  new  life,  both  civil 
and  religious.  This  is  examplified  in  the  course  of  legislation  which 
during  the  prevalence  of  the  Numerical  system  was  chiefly  in  the 
direction  of  securing  for  the  people  (plebs)  increased  consideration 
in  the  State;  such  as  the  right  of  appeal  to  theComitia,  the  appoint- 
ment of  Tribunes  to  check  the  authority  of  the  Senate,  the  require- 
ment that  the  Senate  should  approve  the  acts  of  the  Comitia  and 
that  the  latter  should  bind  all  classes  of  the  people.  The  authori- 
zation of  marriages  between  the  classes  and  masses;  the  admission 
of  the  plebs  to  the  sacred  rites;  their  privilege  to  elect  one  of  the 
consuls  and  certain  proportions  of  the  other  magistrates;  the  repres- 

''  During  the  Second  Punic  War  they  liberated  and  enlisted  their  own  slaves.    Livy, 
XXXIV,  6. 


Pl.LNDKK    DK    KLkOl'K    l!V     IiIK    ROMANS.  97 

sion  of  siinonv;  the  publication  of  tlie  laws,  and  of  the  forms  of  pro- 
cedure and  the  calendar;  the  forbiddance  of  excessive  usury;  the  re- 
pression of  bribery;  the  interdict  of  attachment  upon  the  person  for 
debt;  of  imprisonment  except  by  virtue  of  legal  process  and  pre- 
scription; of  tampering  with  the  public  records;  of  mortmain;  and 
of  binding,  scourging,  or  killing  a  Roman  citizen;  all  these  are 
reforms  which  belong  to  this  Halcyon  Age.  The  summit  of  |iro- 
gressive  legislation  and  series  of  reforms  was  reached,  when,  in  B.C. 
254,  the  learned  and  pious  Titus  Coruncanius,  a  plebian,  was  elected 
Pontifex  Maximus.  The  Jus  .Klianum  by  Sextus  /l^lius  Catus,  se- 
curing to  the  people  a  knowledge  of  the  Code  of  Procedure,  which 
notwithstanding  the  previous  laws  on  the  subject  had  hitherto  been 
mystified  by  the  Church  and  the  Senate,  was  published  in  B.C.  201.'^ 
The  adoi^ion  of  the  Rhodian  maritime  code,  distinct  traces  of  which 
are  to  be  found  in  the  laws  of  the  Roman  republic,  completes  a 
magnificent  edifice  of  Civil  Rights  and  jurisprudence,  whose  erection 
began  during  the  xra  of  the  Numerical  System  and  was  <  ontinued 
to  the  midst  of  the  Halcyon  Age  which  sprang  from  the  i)iuniler  of 
Europe. 

The  great  jurisconsults  of  the  day  were  Titus  Coruncanius,  B.  C. 
254,  M.  Fortius  Cato,  234-149,  Sextus ^lius  Catus  and  Sextus  Paetus, 
who  was  consul  in  188,  the  son  of  that  always  faithful  follower  of 
the  Cornelian  family,  Publius  .-Elius  Pectus,  consul  B.  C.  201.  " 

That  knowledge  of  the  Orient  which  the  Romans  acquired  by  the 
conquest  of  Tarentum  and  through  their  alliance  with  Hiero  II.,  of 
Syracuse,  B.  C.  263,  was  greatly  increased  after  the  capture  of  that 
great  city  by  Marcellus  in  B.  C.  212.  The  Indian  trade  was  at  that 
time  largely  conducted  by  the  way  of  Syracuse  and  Alexandria,  but 
after  Syria  became  a  Roman  province,  it  was  again  carried  across 
the  Desert.  Some  evidence  of  the  Indian  religious  myths  which 
reached  Rome  anew  at  this  period  will  be  found  in  the  proceedings 
of  Scipio  already  mentioned. 

In  a  few  years  after  their  conquest  of  Sicily  and  Greece  the  mer- 
chant ships  of  the  Romans  were  to  be  seen  in  all  the  ports  of  the 
Levant.  The  first  Roman  fighting  ships  were  probably  built  in  B.  C. 
337.  but  the  first  organized  fleet  was  built  under  L,  Valerius  Flaccus, 
B.  C.  261,  the  second  in  256,  the  third  in  254,  the  fourth  in  250,  ami 
the  fifth  in  242, 

These  five  fleets  comprised  nearly  1000  ships.  They  were  all  built, 
equipped  and  manned  within  the  period  under  review."  Great  im- 
**  Dunlop,  II,  136.  "Cicero,  Drut.  *"  Lenglet  de  Frcsnoy. 


96  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

provements  were  also  made  in  battering  rams,  balistae,  catapults,  and 
other  engines  and  weapons  of  war.  The  number  and  breed  of  war 
horses  was  also  much  improved.  InB.  C.  225  (^mil.Paulus  and  Att. 
Regulus,  coss.)  and  upon  the  report  of  a  rising  in  Cisalpine  Gaul, 
Italy  alone  was  able  to  enlist  and  arm  80,000  cavalry,  besides  700,000 
foot.  ^' 

With  rising  prices  every  department  of  human  activity  was  set  in 
motion:  all  sorts  of  reforms  came  to  the  front  and  were  no  sooner 
discussed  and  found  to  be  meritorious  than  they  were  adopted.  Gov- 
ernmental institutions  kept  pace  with  conquest  and  trade.  Inter- 
national arbitration  was  initiated  by  the  Treaty  between  Scipio  and 
Antiochus."  In  B.  C.  182  the  Romans  acted  as  arbiters  between  Nu- 
midia  and  Carthage.  "  The  public  funds,  hitherto  stored  in  the 
temples,  were  now  deposited  in  the  Treasury  (aerarium) ;  and  the  first 
account  of  them  appears  in  B.  C.  157,  when  they  consisted  of  17,410 
pounds  weight  of  gold,  22,070  pounds  weight  of  silver,  and  6, 135,000 
sesterces  in  coins.  "  These  sums  contain  the  same  weight  of  metal 
(reckoning  silver  as  10  for  i  of  gold)as$5,463,6o5,orabout^i,ioo.ooo. 
Additional  trade  guilds  seem  to  have  been  formed  at  this  period. 
Numa  is  credited  by  Plutarch  with  having  established  nine,  viz., 
the  Braziers,  Potters,  etc.  In  B.  C.  493  the  guild  of  Merchants  was 
incorporated.  *^  During  the  period  under  review  were  added  the 
Fullers  and  several  others.  " 

The  Public  Works  erected  in  Rome  during  the  Rise  of  Prices 
were  both  numerous,  splendid,  and  durable.  In  after  times  Augus- 
tus boasted  that  he  had  found  a  city  of  bricks  and  had  left  one  of 
marble.  Fabius  Maximus  could  have  boasted  that  he  found  one  of 
boards  and  left  one  of  bricks.  Before  the  conquest  of  Tarentum 
most  of  the  private  houses  of  Rome  were  of  wood,  roofed  with  shin- 
gles. They  were  soon  afterward  built  of  bricks  and  stone  and  roofed 
with  tiles.  *''  The  Appian  duct,  the  first  acqueduct  which  brought 
water  to  Rome,  was  begun  by  Appius  Claudius  Caecus,  B.  C.  313 ;  the 
second,  called  the  Anio  (Vetus),  which  brought  the  water  43  miles, 
was  commenced  by  M.  Curius  Dentatus,  B.  C.  273,  and  the  third, 
called  the  Aqua  Tepula,  was  constructed  B.  C.  127.  The  notion  has 
been  often  advanced  by  modern  writers  that  the  Romans  were  ignor- 
ant of  the  phenomenon  of  hydrostatic  pressure,  the  tendency  of 
water  to  seek  its  level,  and  the  qualities  of  the  syphon.     All  these 

"'  Pliny,  III,  24.  (20.)  ^^  Livy,  xxxviii,  38.  ''^  Livy,  XL,  17. 

■*■•  Pliny,  XXXIII,  17.  '*^  Livy,  11,  27.  ■**  Pliny,  xxxv,  57. 

*''  For  shingles,  see  Pliny,  xvi,  15,  (10)  quoting  C.  Nepos;   for  tiles,  see  Vitruvius 
and  Dr.  Adam. 


I'l.UNDKR    OF    F.UROPE    HY    THE    ROMANS.  99 

phantasms  have  been  dispelled  by  the  discovery  by  Father  Secchi  of 
an  aqiiechict  built  at  Altari,  in  Italy,  about  li.  C.  200.  Says  the  dis- 
coverer, in  a  letter  to  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences:  "  It  is  an 
inverted  syphon,  the  lowest  dei)ression  being^  loi  metres  (3;^^^  feet) 
below  the  point  from  which  the  water  flowed  into  the  town.  At  the 
lowest  point  it  sustains  a  pressure  e(}ual  to  eleven  atmospheres.  The 
pipes  are  of  earthen-ware  imbedded  in  a  heavy  work  of  concrete. 
The  length  of  the  pipe  line  is  eleven  and  a  half  miles.  The  whole  is 
still  in  a  good  state  of  preservation."  *"  A  service  of  posts  followed 
the  construction  of  the  great  highways.  Ambassadors  from  the  gov- 
ernment of  Rome  were  entitled  to  demand  "a  horse  at  each  of  the 
towns  through  which  tlieir  journey  lay."  At  a  later  date,  B.  C.  173, 
the  consul  Lucius  Postumius  Albinus,  being  ordered  by  the  Senate  to 
fi.\  the  boundaries  between  the  public  and  private  lands  in  Campania, 
required  the  authorities  of  PrKneste  to  provide  him  with  both  relays 
and  lodgings.  " 

A  machine  for  measuring  and  marking  long  distance  levels  was 
certainly  in  use  when  the  auriferous  gravels  of  Leon  and  (ialicia 
were  first  worked  by  the  Romans,  and  this  is  not  likely  to  have  been 
much  later  than  the  period  their  accpiisition,  B.  C.  206 — for  one  of 
these  deposits  was  supplied  with  water  fetched  from  a  distance,  over 
hill  and  valley,  of  28  miles.  The  means  of  conveyance  was  an  open 
ditch  line,  cut  for  miles  through  laminated  slate  and  complemented 
with  high  tressle-work  flumes,  or  wooden  viaducts,  which  bridged 
over  the  depressions  in  the  line.  This  work  (the  ruins  of  which  were 
personally  inspected  by  the  writer)  was  done  with  a  precision  that  is 
impossible  without  the  aid  levelling  instruments.  The  use  of  such 
instruments  is  more  than  implied  in  Pliny  the  Younger's  letter  to  Tra- 
jan, where  he  suggests  tlie  empluyment  of  locks  for  a  canal  near  the 
city  of  Nicomedia,  and  writes  to  Calpurnius  Macer  for  a  water- 
engineer  (Librator)  to  decide  upon  the  proposed  improvement.  *" 
The  land  engineer  was  called  Agrimensor.  "  Pliny's  letters  only 
carry  the  Librator  and  his  instruments  of  precision  back  to  the  im- 
perial age:  the  works  still  standing  on  Mount  Teleno  carry  them 
back  to  the  aera  of  Rising  Prices.  The  great  Sewers  of  Rome,  the 
first  of  which  is  credited  by  tradition  to  theTarquins,  were  increased 
during  the  Rise  of  Prices  to  the  number  of  seven,  all  built  of  solid 
masonry  and  together  completely  draining  the  site  of  the  metropolis. " 

The   magnificent  paved   Roads,    which   diverged   from   Rome   in 

*' Trans.  Fr.  Acad,  of  Sciences,  before  18S7.  ••' Lny,  xi.ii,  i. 

**  Pliny,  Ep.  .\.  50.  6g.     "  I'liny,  Ep.  v,  15.     "  Tliny,  xx.xiv.  24;   I, ivy.  xxxix,  44 


lOO  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

every  direction,  some  of  which,  after  2000  years  of  service,  are  still 
in  use,  were  begun  by  Appius  Claudius  in  B.  C.  313.  The  first  road, 
the  Via  Appia,  originally  went  only  a  little  beyond  Terracina;  in 
B.  C.  185,  during  the  Rise  of  Prices,  it  was  extended  to  Formite  and 
Capua  "  and  eventually  to  Brundusium,  a  distance  of  350  miles.  The 
Via  Numicia  went  also  to  Brundusium;  the  Aurelia  ran  along  the 
coast  of  Etruria:  the  Flaminia  was  built  by  Caius  Flaminius  in  B.  C. 
220  and  extended  to  Ariminum,  now  Rimini,  a  distance  of  about  220 
miles,  where  it  was  afterwards  joined  by  the  Via  Emilia;  the  Cassia 
went  between  the  Aurelia  and  Flaminia  and  ran  through  Etruria  to 
Mutina;  the  yFmilia  was  built  by  the  Consul  Marcus  ^Emilius  Lepi- 
dus,  B.  C.  187  and  ran  from  Ariminum  to  Placentia.  Besides  these 
there  were  the  Prseenestina,  Triburtina,  Laurentina,  Salaria,  Latina, 
and  others  of  lesser  note. 

The  Decennovium  canal,  19  miles  long,  from  Terracina  to  Appia 
Forum  (through  the  Pontine  marshes)  was  begun  in  B.  C.  312,  but 
it  is  evident  that  its  completion  must  have  awaited  the  extension  of 
the  Appian  way.  In  fact,  the  canal  was  substantially  the  work  of 
Cornelius  Cethegus,  B.  C.  160.  To  use  the  pithy  words  of  Gibbon, 
it  was  afterwards  ruined,  restored  and  obliterated.  This  canal  is 
mentioned  by  Strabo.  Lucan,  Dion  Cassius,  and  Cassiodorus. 

The  first  regular  theatre  at  Rome  was  constructed  for  Livius  An- 
dronicus,  on  the  Aventine,  about  B.  C.  230:  the  theatre  of  M..F.milius 
Lepidus  was  built  in  B.  C.  179:  the  theatre  demolished  in  deference 
to  the  pious  scruples  of  P.  C.  Scipio  Nasica,  was  constructed  in  B.  C. 
15.2.  "  In  B.  C.  185  Cato  the  Elder  erected  a  spacious  Court  of 
Justice:  in  B.  C.  179  the  Basilica  Fulvia  was  erected;  and  numerous 
other  temples  first  reared  their  heads  to  the  sky  in  this  Halcyon  Age 
of  Rome. 

The  arts  and  sciences  exhibited  the  same  sudden  and  noticeable 
activity.  Pliny's  remark  that  "the  Roman  people  has  never  shown 
itself  slow  to  adopt  all  the  useful  arts,"  must  have  been  intended  to 
apply  especially  to  this  period."  The  war  chariot  armed  with  scythes 
first  appeared  B.  C.  281.^'^  After  the  close  of  the  Second  Punic  War, 
when  estates  in  Italy  had  become  too  large  for  petty  culture,  a  modi- 
fication of  this  machine  was  used  as  a  harvester.  "  A  threshing  ma- 
chine (tribula)  was  also  invented  at  this  period.  The  steel  plough  was 
in  use  when  Cato  the  Elder  wrote.  The  seed  drill  was  in  use  about 
B.  C.  175;  silos  for  preserving  grain  were  employed  about  the  same 

*^  Livy,  xxxix,  44.         ^^Livy,  Ep.  48;  Dunlop,  I,  338.         ^^  Pliny,  xxix,  7. 

'"  I'utnani,  Ency.  Chron.  *'  Pliny,  xvni,  72. 


PLUNDF.R    OF    EUROPK    I!Y    THE    ROMANS.  lOI 

time;  the  rheda,  afterwards  called  the  carruca.  was  a  four-wheeled 
carriage  whose  lightness  enabled  it  to  be  driven  over  the  great  high- 
ways at  top  speetl.  This  was  also  a  product  of  the  period.  The  car- 
rus,  or  curricle,  is  mentioned  by  Plautus  in  Trinumino,  iii,  4,  a  coiiietly 
which  was  performed  at  Rome  shortly  after  the  close  of  the  Second 
Punic  war.  Sheffers'  work  is  full  of  allusions  to  the  improved  agri- 
cultural and  vehicular  machines  of  this  period."  The  Ojipian  law  of 
B.C.  214  referred  to  "  carriages  drawn  by  horses  "  and  in  the  debate 
upon  i'l  repeal.  B.C.  193,  the  wives  of  the  Latine  confederates  were 
depicted  by  Lucius  Valerius,  the  plebian  tribune,  as  "  riding  through 
the  city  in  their  carriages,  decorated  with  gold  and  purple."  '"*  Em- 
broidery was  first  made  at  Rome  during  this  period.  The  use  of  linen 
underclothing  was  introduced  by  the  Dionysian  priests,  or  priestesses, 
who  accompanied  the  Matrem  Deorum  from  Pessinus  to  Rome,  B.C. 
204;  '"  the  cortina,  or  hydraulica,  a  musical  organ,  employed  in  the 
temples  and  theatres,  belongs  also  to  this  period  and  is  mentioned  by 
Plutarch  in  Phocion  and  described  in  the  "Organon  "  of  Pub.  Opta- 
tianus."  Bread  was  first  made  by  public  bakers  in  B.C.  174."^  Sulphur 
matches  appear  to  belong  to  the  same  period.  I'liny  describes  the 
sort  of  sulphur  employed  in  their  fabrication,  whilst  Martial  depicts 
the  poor  Hebrew  children  who  in  his  day  were  employed  to  peddle 
them  in  the  streets  of  the  metropolis." 

The  apothecaries'  labels  engraved  upon  stone  and  printed  on  bot- 
tles and  jugs  (Wright,  in  "  Celt,  Roman,  and  Saxon,")  and  the  Roman 
stencil  plates  and  branding  irons  collected  by  the  British  Museum 
prove  that  the  Romans,  had  they  possessed  the  secret  of  making  suit- 
able paper,  might  have  anticipated  the  invention  of  printing  by  many 
ages.  The  specimens  of  iron,  steel  and  brass  work  still  e.xtant  evince 
great  proficiency  in  the  arts.  Their  surgical  instruments,  joiners 
tools,  locks, keys  and  other  implements  and  mechanisms  fell  but  little 
short  of  modern  perfection. 

The  wonderful  jirogress  exhibited  in  these  various  arts  and  inven- 
tions ilid  not  fail  to  extend  itself  to  the  machinery  and  other  devices 
employed  to  economize  labour  in  the  mines.   A  passage  in  Martial  has 

'*  Pliny,  IV,  106;  Varro,  i,  52.  For  tribula,  Adam,  Kom.  Ant.  469,  529;  for  silos, 
ibid,  530;  for  vehicles  and  farming  machines,  Dc  re  \'ehiculari  Veterum  by  Joannis 
Scheffers,  Frankfort,  4  to.  1671,  p.  3,  et  passim.  "  I. ivy.  xxxiv,  7. 

'"Adam.  42S;  Cor)-'s  Fragments  ed.  1S76,  p.  162.     .strabo.  lib.  .xv. 

*'  Plutarch  in  Phocion.  Athenxus  attributes  the  invention  to  Ctesibius.  P.  C.  250. 
BusbyJs  Hist.  Music. 

*' Adam,  436.  •' .Martial.  Ep.  xii,  57;   Pliny,  xxxv   51. 


I02  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

been  interpreted  as  an  allusion  to  the  stamp-mill. "  Possibly  the  wheel 
pump  employed  for  the  deep  levels  of  the  St.  Domingo  gold  mine  in 
Castile  and  certainly  the  "booming"  apparatus  employed  to  sweep 
away  the  tailings  of  Las  Medulas,  are  of  the  same  marvellous  age."* 
Mica  was  imported  from  Spain  and  used  for  house  and  carriage  win- 
dows about  B.  C.  200."  The  qualities  of  the  loadstone  and  various 
sorts  of  magnets  are  described  by  Pliny.  It  is  suspected  by  Ajasson 
that  the  polarization  of  iron  was  also  known  to  the  Romans;  and  as 
the  knowledge  seems  to  have  resulted  from  observing  the  action  of 
loadstone  upon  iron  and  the  former  was  obtained  in  Spain  and  Greece, 
the  discovery  of  polarization  is  most  likely  to  have  taken  place  soon 
after  the  Roman  conquest  of  those  countries.  That  the  Greeks  be- 
fore this  time  were  well  aware  of  magnetic  attraction  is  proved  by 
the  project  of  Timochares,  who  in  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus, 
B.C.  285-47,  "  began  to  erect  a  vaulted  roof  of  loadstone  in  the  tem- 
ple of  Arsinoe  at  Alexandria,  in  order  that  the  iron  statue  of  that 
princess  might  have  the  appearance  of  hanging  suspended  in  the  air. "  "'^ 
Another  Greek  invention, the  steam-engine  of  Hero, B.C.  284-41,  also 
belongs  to  this  period.  Draper  says  that  twenty  centuries  of  retro- 
gression separated  this  invention  from  that  of  Watts,  and  he  rather 
indicates  the  reason  by  remarking  that  while  one  revolved  in  a  tem- 
ple (the  Serapion)  the  other  drove  a  woollen  mill."^  The  conquest  of 
Greece  by  the  Romans  must  have  communicated  these  inventions, 
together  with  the  entire  body  of  Greek  scientific  knowledge,  to  Rome. 
A  degree  of  the  earth's  meridiantwas  determined  by  Erastothenes 
of  Alexandria,  who  died  B.C.  194,  the  base  of  the  measurement  be- 
ing the  distance  between  Alexandria  and  Rhodes.  Assuming  with 
Aristotle  that  the  shape  of  the  earth  was  necessarily  spherical,  this 
measurement  enabled  Erastothenes  to  calculate  the  circumference  of 
the  earth  at  252,000  stadia,  which  Pliny  converted  into  31,500  Ro- 
man miles,   equal,   as  we  may  say,  to  28,832   English  miles.     The 

**Such,  at  least,  is  the  opinion  of  Depping,  11,  77.  The  passage  is  as  follows: 
Martial  Ep.  xii,  57:  Hinc  otiosus  sordidam  quatit  mensam  Neroniana  nummularius 
massa;  Illinc  paludis  malleator  Hispanae  Tritum  nitenti  fuste  verberat  saxum. 

**  See  Chapter  on  Spain  and  Gaul. 

*^  Pliny  mentions  the  use  of  mica,  but  omits  the  date  of  its  introduction.  This  is 
believed  to  be  most  probably  that  of  the  conquest  of  Spain. 

*'  Pliny,  xx.xiv,  42;  xxxvi,  25  and  Note  by  Ajasson. 

**  In  his  "  Pneumatica,"  Hero  describes  various  methods  of  employing  steam  as  a 
power.  To  him  is  ascribed  the  ^olopile,  a  toy  steam  engine.  A  translation  of  his 
treatise  appeared  in  Bologna,  1547.  Best  edition,  Paris,  1693.  It  is  Draper's  "  In- 
tellectual Developement  of  Europe,"  I,  387,  which  says  that  the  machine  was  exhijjited 
in  the  Serapion. 


PLUNDER    OK    EUROPE    UY    THE    ROMANS.  103 

commercial  intercourse,  which  continually  went  on  between  Alexan- 
dria, Rhodes,  and  Rome,  soon  made  this  determination  the  common 
property  of  the  three  cities.  Indeed,  it  was  not  long  afterwards  pub- 
licly discussed  by  Hipparchus  of  Athens,  Dionysodorus  of  Melos, 
Artemidorus  of  Ephesus  and  Posidonius  of  Ajiamea,  all  of  whom 
made  similar  measurements  of  their  own."  The  armillary  sphere,  the 
gnomon  and  a  chart  of  the  world  were  among  the  other  inventions 
of  Erastosthenes.  They  were  all  products  of  this  period.  What  gave 
rise  to  them,  what  gave  rise  to  all  the  inventions  of  this  age,  was  that 
encouragement,  that  reward  for  effort,  which  is  only  extended  because 
it  can  only  be  extended,  to  all  persons  during  a  period  of 'rising,  or 
at  least  Stable  Prices.  The  knowledge  that  a  ready  and  appreciative 
market  was  open,  in  Rome,  to  every  meritorious  device,  stimulated 
invention,  not  only  within  the  Commonwealth,  but  also  beyond  it. 
The  stimulus  was  felt  in  Rhodes,  in  Athens,  in  Alexandria,  in  short, 
in  every  mart  and  every  school  of  science  with  which  Rome  was  in 
communication. 

The  first  sun-dial  was  erected  at  Rome  in  the  temple  of  Quirinus, 
by  Papirius  Cursor,  the  consul,  in  B.  C.  292,  from  which  time  the 
days  began  to  be  divided  by  hours.  The  first  sun-dial  (a  faulty  one) 
was  exposed  to  the  public  gaze  in  K.  C.  262.  The  first  correct  sun- 
dial was  erected  in  Rome  B.  C.  163.  The  first  clepsydra,  or  water- 
clock,  which  gave  the  hours  irrespective  of  the  weather,  was  erected 
bv  P.  C.  Scipio  Nasica,  B.C.  158."  Even  the  division  of  the  day  into 
24  hours  is  a  product  of  this  period." 

Many  new  plants,  trees,  vegetables,  fruits,  herbs  and  flowers  were 
introduced  into  Rome  from  the  various  countries  which  fell  under 
her  sway  at  this  period  and  are  enumerated  by  Varroand  Pliny  among 
the  ancients  and  by  Dunlop  and  Carpenter  among  the  moderns." 

Down  to  this  age  cures  were  worked  by  charms  and  incantations, 
or  by  vows  to  images  or  rich  offerings  to  the  gods.  The  introduction  of 
herbs  and  medicinal  plants  gave  rise  to  the  medical  profession,  whose 
Nestor  in  Rome  was  Archagatus,  B.C.  220.  The  first  Roman  work 
on  medicine  was  published  by  Cato  the  Elder,  about  B.C.  190." 

We  still  use  the  signs  which  he  copied  from  the  Creek  physicians. 
Our  chemists'  shops  are  denoted  by  |^  the  Bacchic  cross;  our  pre- 
scriptions are  prefixed  with  the  Roman  symbol  for,  "Receive  this  in 

•»  Pliny.  II.  112.  '*'  Pliny.  vii,6o. 

"  Brady,  Clavis  Calendaria,  i.  34;  App,  Cyc.  ist  ed.  ix,  300. 

"^  Pliny.  XIX,  xx;  Duolop,  11.  14,  21,  23,  30.  "  Dunlop,  n,  20,  21. 


I04  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

the  name  of  Jove;"  while  the  prescriptions  themselves  are  in  both 
Greek  and  Roman. 

If  we  turn  from  the  arts  to  literature  the  evidence  of  a  sudden  and 
prodigious  growth  at  this  period  meet  us  in  every  department  of 
thought  and  fancy.  The  earliest  histories  of  Rome  were  published 
about  B.C.  260  by  Timseus,  about  B.C.  220  by  Q.  Fabius  Pictor  and 
about  B.C.  200  by  Lucius  Cincius  Alimentus.'* 

The  first  Roman  work  on  agriculture  was  De  Re  Rustica  by  Cato 
the  Elder,  B.  C.  200;  the  second  was  that  of  Mago,  the  Carthaginian, 
in  32  books,  translated  into  Latin  by  D.  Silanus,  under  an  order  of 
the  Senate;  the  third  was  a  work  brought  from  Macedonia  among 
the  spoils  of  King  Perseus;  all  within  the  space  of  less  than  half  a 
century.'*  Cato's  work  begins  with  the  following  characteristic  pass- 
age: "It  would  be  advantageous  to  seek  profit  from  commerce  if  it 
were  not  hazardous,  or  by  usury,  if  that  were  honest;  but  our  an- 
cestors ordained  that  whilst  a  thief  should  forfeit  double  the  sum  he 
had  stolen,  the  usurer  should  forfeit  quadruple  what  he  had  taken, 
whence  it  may  be  concluded  that  they  thought  the  usurer  the 
worst  man  of  the  two.  When  they  wished  to  greatly  praise  a  man 
they  called  him  a  good  farmer.  A  merchant  maybe  zealous  in  push- 
ing his  fortune,  but  commerce  is  perilous  and  liable  to  reverses.  Farm- 
ers, too,  make  the  bravest  men  and  the  stoutest  soldiers.  Their  gain 
is  the  most  honest,  the  most  stable,  and  the  least  exposed  to  envy; 
whilst  those  who  practice  the  art  of  agriculture  are  of  all  persons  the 
least  addicted  to  seditious  thoughts." 

The  first  philosophers  in  Italy,  ISIetrodorus  of  Macedon  and  Panse- 
tius  of  Rhodes,  arrived  in  B.C.  168,  during  the  Halcyon  Age. '^  Many 
others  followed  shortly  after  them;  but  they  were  all,  together  with 
the  Greek  physicians,  who  appeared  in  Rome  at  the  same  period, 
banished  from  the  city  by  a  decree  of  the  Senate  in  B.  C.  162,  the 
only  exceptions  being  Pangetius  the  philosopher  and  Polybius  the  his- 
torian. The  rest  took  up  their  residence  in  the  municipal  towns  of 
Italy,  where  they  remained  until  B.C.  156,  when  they  all  returned  to 
the  metropolis,  this  time  not  as  adventurers,  but  as  ambassadors  from 
their  native  countries.  Among  them  were  Diogenes  the  Stoic,  Crito- 
laus  the  Peripatetic  and  Carneades  of  Cyrene,  who  now  held  the  place 
of  Arceilaus  in  the  New  Academy.  During  the  period  of  their  em- 
bassy at  Rome  they  lectured  to  crowded  audiences  in  the  most  pub- 
lic parts  of  the  city,  with  such  effect  as  to  excite  in  the  Roman  youth 

'^  Dunlop,  II,  68;  Middle  Ages  Revisited,  App.  "  S,"  on  Ludi  Ssculares. 
"Pliny,  XVIII,  3;  Columella;  Dunlop,  11,  11,  68.  ■"*  Dunlop,  11,  209-10. 


ri.UNDKK    UK    KL  KOl'K    HY     1  H  K    koMANS.  105 

an  ardent  thirst  for  knowledge,  which  now  becimt-  a  rival  to  military 
glory."  Many  jirinciplts  and  divisions  of  the  Civil  Law  are  founded 
on  their  maxims. 

The  first  Roman  work  on  Oratory  was  by  M.  Cornelius  Cethegus, 
who  was  consul  in  B.C.  204;  the  secoml,  by  the  indefatigable  Cato, 
about  B.C.  200  and  the  third  by  Ser.  Galba,  about  B.C.  190.'" 

The  first  rhetorician  who  taught  at  Rome  was  Crates  Mallotes,  of 
Pergamus  (son  of  Timocrates),  B.C.  169.  He  was  soon  followed  by 
C.  Octavius  Lampadius,  Q.  Vargunteius  and  Q.  Philocomus. '* 

The  prudent  use  of  credit  in  any  form  is  an  indication  of  security 
and  progress.  The  employment  of  bankers  implies  an  extension  of 
credit.  In  B.C.  21S,  upon  the  motion  of  Marcus  Minucius,  a  plebian 
tribune,  Lucius  yEmilius  Papus,  ex-consul  and  censor,  Marcus  Atilius 
Regulus,  ex  consul,  and  Lucius  Scribonius  Libo,  plebian  tribune,  were 
appointed  "public  bankers,"  (mensarii.)  Their  functions  probably 
included  the  collection,  disbursement  and  repayment  of  the  popular 
loan  mentioned  by  Livy.  In  such  case  they  constiiuteda  sort  of  Mon- 
etary Commission.  In  B.C.  212  we  read  in  the  same  author  of  "the 
banking  houses  which  are  now  called  the  New  Banks."  These  were 
no  doubt  the  buildings  or  offices  in  which  the  popular  loan  was  being 
refunded.'*  Lanciana,  the  antiquarian,  informs  us  of  the  remains  of 
an  ancient  safe-deposit  recently  discovered  in  Rome,  whose  rules  and 
regulations,  engraved  upon  bronze,  strikingly  resemble  those  em- 
ployed by  modern  institutions  of  the  same  class.  This  safe-deposit 
was  of  the  time  of  Hadrian;  but  there  is  scarcely  reason  to  doubt 
that  similar  ones  were  constructed  at  a  much  earlier  date,  in  short, 
so  early  as  the  time  when  the  Roman  grandees  drew  their  spoils  from 
the  con(|uest  of  Carthage,  Greece  and  Spain. 

Various  improvements  were  also  made  at  the  same  period  in  the 
mode  of  writing  and  of  keeping  accounts.  Tiie  first  books  written 
on  vellum  appeared  in  Pergamus,  B.C.  198  and  shortly  afterwards  in 
Rome.  Wooden  tablets, covered  with  thin  sheets  of  wax,  designeil  to 
be  written  upon  by  the  stylus,  belong  to  the  same  period.  Two  such 
tablets,  small  8vo.  in  size,  the  wax  being  inscribed  with  accounts  re- 
lating to  the  mines,  were,  about  half  a  century  ago,  taken  out  of  the 
Abrudbanya  gold  mines  of  Hungary,  where  they  had  lain  for  cent- 
uries. About  the  same  time  that  these  wooden-backed  wax  writing- 
tablets  were  invented  in  Rome,  Ennius,  B.  C.  200,  invented  short- 
hand writing.*' 

"  Plutarch,  in  Cato.         '"Cicero.  Brut.;  Dunlop,  n,  220.         "  Dunlop.  11,  36. 
•*  Livy,  xxni.  21;  xxvi,  27;  xxxiv,  6;   I'liny,  XXI,  6.  *'  Dunlop,  .\pp.  p.  4. 


Io6  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    IMETALS. 

The  lighter  literature  kept  pace  with  the  teachings  of  philosophy 
and  history,  the  extension  of  credit  and  the  improvement  of  scrip- 
tures and  books.  The  first  Roman  dramatic  authors  were  Livius  An- 
dronicus,  whose  plays  were  acted  in  B.  C.  240;  Naevius,  B.  C.  235; 
Plautus,  B.C.  224;  Ennius,  B.C.  209;  P.  Licinius  Tegula,  B.C.  198; 
and  Terence,  B.C.  164;  at  which  dates  these  authors  were  each  thirty 
years  of  age.  Terence's  Andria  was  first  produced  in  B.  C.  167;  the 
Hecyra,  165  ;  the  Heautontimorumenos,  163;  and  the  Eunuchus  and 
Phormio,  161.  These  authors  passed  away  with  the  Halcyon  Age  and 
Rome  was  left  without  a  single  poet.^^  At  a  subsequent  period — 
about  B.C.  123 — when  Lucilius,  the  satirist,  was  25  years  of  age  and 
his  patrons,  Scipio  Africanus  Minor  and  Csius  Laelius  were  each 
about  63  years  of  age,  there  was  what  may  be  called  a  feeble  literary 
revival,  a  fact  that  is  evidenced  by  the  works  of  Lucilius  himself;  but, 
as  from  his  time  to  B.  C.  80,  no  other  poet  appeared  in  Rome,  it  is 
evident  that  such  revival,  if  indeed  it  may  be  so  termed,  was  sporadic 
and  ephemeral.^'  The  influx  of  spoil  had  ceased;  the  mines  were  un- 
able to  sustain  the  customary  value  of  commodities;  the  Plunder  of 
Europe  was  accomplished;  the  Rise  of  Prices  was  stopped  ;  and  Rome's 
Halcyon  Age  was  over. 

The  period  that  followed  was  that  of  falling  prices,  agrarian  dis- 
turbances, civil  wars,  and  the  overthrow  of  popular  liberty  and  re- 
publican government.  The  apotheosis  of  Caesar  and  the  degradation 
to  which  it  consigned  the  people  of  Rome  were  supported,  but  not 
caused,  by  superstition.  Their  cause  was  the  Fall  of  Prices  and  the 
policy  of  Plunder  and  Imperialism  into  which  Rome  was  forced  in 
order  to  mitigate  the  consequences  of  that  catastrophe. 

**  Thompson's  Rom.  Lit.  447.  *^  Dunlop,  i,  249. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


BRITAIN. 


Preeminence  of  Britain  in  miner.il  resources — Policy  of  the  Romans — Monetary 
Systems  of  Britain — Her  gold  and  silver  product  shipped  to  Rome — I'rovincial  coins 
of  bronze — Base  silver  issues — Rising  prices  and  prosperity — Breaking  down  of  this 
system — Establishment  of  Roman  gold  and  silver  coins — Contraction  of  the  currency — 
Unprogressive  period — Abandonment  of  Industry — History  of  mining — Aulus  Plau- 
tius  conquers  and  Claudius  visits,  Britain — The  search  for  gold — Placers  and  veins — 
Streaming  for  tin — Mining  debris — Silver-lead  mines — Immense  works  at  Cheddar — 
Roman  mining  laws  of  Derbyshire — Iron  mines  in  tne  Valley  of  the  Severn — Jet — 
Chalk — Coal  mines  near  Newcastle — Construction  of  highways  to  convey  the  mineral 
produce  to  the  coast  and  to  Rome. 

WHAT  Spain  was  to  the  Roman  Commonwealth,  Britain  was  to 
the  Empire:  the  richest  and  most  productive  of  the  mineral 
provinces.  The  splendid  gifts  of  nature,  though  separated  by  more 
than  two  centuries  of  time,  were  no  less  abused  in  the  one  case  than 
the  other.  Spain  was  exploited  to  enrich  the  patricians;  Britain  was 
exploited  to  enrich  the  emperors;  after  which  it  was  abandoned  to 
six  centuries  of  anarchy  and  decay.  To  bring  these  features  of  Ro- 
man avidity  clearly  into  view  it  is  necessary  to  describe  the  monetary 
policy  which  Rome  pursued  in  respect  of  the  provinces. 

It  is  worthy  of  observation  that  the  three  most  distinctive  periods 
of  Roman  conquest  and  territorial  policy  correspond  with  equally  dis- 
tinctive phases  of  her  monetary  systems.  These  are  the  bronze-nu- 
merical, the  silver-coin,  and  the  gold-coin  aeras.  In  the  bronze-nu- 
merical system  the  money  of  Rome  was  issued  by  tlie  Senate,  that  is 
to  say  practically  by  the  people;  in  the  silver-cpin  system  it  was  issued 
by  the  Gentes,  or  the  patrician  families  and  the  corporations  subject 
to  their  control;  in  the  gold-coin  system  it  was  issued  by  the  Sover- 
eign-pontiff, the  silver  and  bronze  coins  being  now  subsitliary,  or  else 
of  geograpically  limited  circulation.  The  bronze-numerical  a:ra  ex- 
tended from  about  the  time  of  the  Gaulish  Invasion  of  Rome  to  the 
Second  Punic  War.  During  this  period  the  conquests  of  Rome  were 
confined  to  Italy.  Her  political  policy  towards  the  con(juered  coun- 
tries was  federation  and  assimilation  ;  her  commercial  policy  was  the 
extension  of  agric  ulture  and  cultivation  of  the  mechanical  arts.  This 
was  the  period  of  her  most  healthy  growth;  when  all  that  was  pro- 


Io8  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

gressive  in  her  developement  and  beneficent  in  her  influence  made 
its  appearance. 

The  aera  of  silver-money  embraced  that  of  the  civil  wars  and  ex- 
tended down  to  the  advent  of  Caesar.  It  corresponded  with  the  con- 
quest of  Carthage,  Hither-Spain,  Greece,  and  Asia  Minor,  all  of  which 
were  silver-producing,  or  silver-using  countries,  chiefly  the  former. 
The  political  policy  of  Rome  towards  these  countries  was  that  of  sov- 
ereign dominion  and  control;  her  commercial  policy  was  the  exaction 
of  heavy  tributes,  chiefly  of  the  coveted  metal  which  now  formed  the 
basis  of  her  monetary  system.  Before  this  period  drew  to  a  close, 
Rome  had  reached  the  maturity  of  her  industrial  developement. 

The  distinctive  sera  of  gold-money  began  with  the  Imperial  period 
and  embraced  the  conquest  or  exploitation  of  Further-Spain,  Gaul, 
Pannonia,  Dacia-Ulterior, Britain,  and  Egypt;  all  auriferous  regions. 
These  countries,  like  the  silver  producing  states,  were  at  first  sub- 
jected to  heavy  metallic  tributes;  but  as  natural  deposits  of  gold  are 
more  quickly  reached  and  exhausted  below  the  level  of  profit  than 
those  of  silver,  this  policy  was  afterwards  changed,  and  Rome  planted 
and  repopulated  some  of  these  provinces,  seeking  to  derive  its  rev- 
enues from  them  through  the  more  lasting  resources  of  agriculture, 
commerce  and  the  arts. 

A  policy  similar  to  that  of  Rome  afterwards  governed  the  Spanish 
Empire  in  America.  The  silver  producing  states,  Mexico,  and  Peru, 
were  governed  from  first  to  last  with  the  sole  purpose  of  exacting- 
from  them  as  much  metal  as  possible.  It  was  for  this  purpose  that 
their  inhabitants  were  subjected  to  the  Encomienda  system  and  the 
Mita.  Centuries  of  loss  sustained  by  the  mother  country  and  of  cru- 
elty and  misrule  endured  by  the  natives  had  operated  to  weaken  the 
control  of  the  former,  before  the  Napoleonic  wars  in  Europe  inspired 
the  latter  to  throw  off  their  yoke.  On  the  other  hand,  the  gold  placer 
countries,  Hispaniola,  Cuba  and  Panama,  were  soon  exhausted  of 
their  auriferous  deposits  and  began  to  be  planted  with  sugar  and 
maize  as  early  as  the  first  quarter  of  the  i6th  century.  It  was  a  ne- 
cessity of  the  situation  either  to  plant  or  abandon  these  provinces, 
for  there  w^as  plainly  no  more  gold  to  be  got;  whilst  as  to  Mexico 
and  Peru,  whose  silver  deposits  seemed  to  be  inexhaustible,  agricul- 
ture was  never  pursued  beyond  the  barest  requirements  for  food. 

The  policy  of  Rome  toward  Britain  was  influenced  by  considera- 
tions of  a  mixed  character.  Britain  was  opened  as  an  auriferous  prov- 
ince: but  before  Agricola  was  appointed  governor,  A.D.  77,  the  gold 
mines  had  become  unprofitable.      By  this  time,  however,  the  silver- 


liRlTAIN.  109 

lead  mines  were  very  productive  and  the  work  of  exhausting  tlicni 
was  pushed  on  with  all  the  ardour  of  cupiility.  As,  afterwards  in 
America,  the  whole  of  the  product  was  obliged  to  be  sent  to  the 
mother  country.  Thus  Britain,  metalliferously  rich  by  nature,  was 
kept  metalliferously  poor  by  man. 

Under  these  circumstances  we  should  naturally  look  for  a  feeble 
developement  of  provincial  resources,  a  wretched  growth  of  tempo- 
rary habitations  and  a  neglected  land.  On  the  contrary,  we  find  evi- 
dences of  great  cities,  splendid  temples,  numerous  factories  and  im- 
mense agricultural  and  pastural  wealth. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  such  great  industrial  progress  lacked 
the  incentive  of  rising,  or,  at  least,  steady  prices;  for  with  falling 
prices  there  could  have  been  no  adequate  reward  to  either  planter, 
artisan,  or  trader;  no  inducement  for  the  continuance  of  his  labours. 
One  by  one  the  Roman  colonists  and  proprietors  would  have  aban- 
doned the  province,  and  left  it  to  the  sokliery  and  the  natives.  The 
former,  occupied  with  military  works,  such  as  ct)nstructing  the  coast 
castles,  the  fortifications  of  the  cities,  and  the  great  walls  which  de- 
fended the  northern  frontier;  the  latter  degraded  to  mere  slaves  of 
the  soil,  in  order  to  secure  food  and  subsistence  for  their  masters. 
That  such  was  not  the  character  of  the  Roman  colonization  of  Brit- 
ain, is  sufficiently  attested  by  the  progress  and  developement  of  the 
province. 

What  sort  of  a  monetary  system  then  did  the  British  province  en- 
joy, that,  notwithstanding  its  deprivation  of  the  precious  metals, 
rendered  it  so  prosperous  during  the  first  two  centuries  of  the  Roman 
occupation?  The  answer  is:  overvalued  bronze  luimeraries,  such  as 
Maecenas  advised  Augustus  to  adopt.  That  this  advice,  so  far  as 
Britain  is  concerned,  was  faithfully  carried  into  practice,  is  evident 
from  the  immense  quantities  of  these  coins  which  were  exported  from 
Rome  and  the  numerous  and  large  finds  of  them  in  the  provinces 
which  have  rewarded  the  researches  of  modern  antiquaries.  Dr. 
Henry  is  of  the  opinion  that  during  the  Roman  occupation  of  Hritain 
there  was  more  money  in  circulation  than  at  any  time  afterwards, un- 
til the  discovery  of  America.  In  view  of  the  absorption  and  monopoly 
of  the  precious  metals  by  Rome,  there  seems  little  room  to  dispute 
that  this  money  consisted  of  those  symbols  which  had  served  the 
mother  country  so  well  in  times  past  and  which  it  was  now  hoped 
would  equally  well  serve  the  infancy  and  promote  the  growth  of  her 
provinces.  In  later  times,  when  the  power  of  Rome  declined  and 
her  provincial  system,  together  with  many  other  of  her  institutions, 


no  HISTORY   OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

was  overthrown,  the  numerical  money  of  Britain  was  supplanted  by 
gold  and  silver  coins;  but  from  the  conquest  of  Claudius  until  near 
the  beginning  of  the  third  century  of  our  sera,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  monetary  system  of  that  province  consisted  in  the 
main  of  a  series  of  overvalued  bronze  numeraries  issued  by  the  Sen- 
ate of  Rome.  When  first  introduced  into  Britain  these  numeraries 
("sesterces")  were  subject  to  limitation  of  numbers:  but  if  Dr.  Henry 
is  right,  this  regulation  had  but  little  practical  result  in  Britain;  and 
the  volume  of  bronze  and  debased  silver  money  probably  continued 
to  increase  until  after  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  when  the 
bronze  pieces,  having  fallen  to  their  metallic  value  and  proving  too 
heavy  at  this  valuation  to  be  commodious,  prices  were  expressed  once 
more  in  imperial  gold  and  silver  coins,  which  had  meanwhile  become 
more  and  more  common  in  the  provincial  circulation.  The  overvalued 
or  debased  silver  coins,  with  the  efifigies  of  Claudius,  Nero,  Vespasian, 
Domitian,  Trajan,  Hadrian,  Antoninus  and  other  emperors,  were  prob- 
ably struck  in  the  province.  A  similar  practice  obtained  in  Gaul.  The 
quinarii  (half  denarii)  of  Calletes  are  stamped  with  the  numerical 
value  "X,"  meaning  one  denarius.* 

It  is  during  this  aera  that  we  must  suppose  that  all  the  progress  made 
by  the  Romans  in  Britain  took  place,  because  it  is  difficult  to  account 
for  these  results  without  admitting  a  rise  of  prices. 

During  the  contraction  which  afterwards  existed  there  was  no  per- 
manent incentive  to  industry;  so  progress  came  to  an  end.  Says  Mr. 
Wright:  "We  have  no  traces  of  a  Roman  mint  in  Britain  until  the 
reign  of  Diocletian  and  Maximian." '^  Yet  at  Polden  Hill  near  Eding- 
ton,  in  Somersetshire,  several  hundred  moulds  were  recently  found  for 
casting  debased  denarii,  with  the  effigies  of  Septimius  Severus  and 
his  wife  Julia,  of  Caracalla,  Geta,  Macrinus,  Heliogabalus,  Julia  Paula, 
Alex.  Severus,  Maximinus,  Maximus,  Plautilla  and  Julia  Mammaea. 
Others  have  been  found  at  Lingwellgate  near  Wakefield,  Yorkshire; 
at  Ruyton  and  Wroxeter  in  Shropshire  and  at  Castor  in  Northamp- 
tonshire, the  last  three  places  being  the  sites  of  the  Roman  towns 
Rutunium,  Uriconium  and  Durobrivse.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that 
the  Romano-British  colonists  of  these  remote  times  did  precisely 
what  the  British- American  colonists  did  sixteen  centuries  later:  they 
transgressed  the  impolitic  laws  of  a  distant  suzerain  and  set  up  their 
own  mints. 

'  Noel  Humphreys'  "Coin  Collectors'  Manual,"  172. 

^  The  coins  of  Carausius,  A.D.  287-93,  are  the  earliest  that  are  known  to  have  been 
struck  in  Britain  by  an  authority,  which,  though  at  first  usurped,  was  afterwards  re- 
cognized as  imperial. 


I!  K  ir  A  1  X  111 

Mark  that  we  are  not  here  advocating  a  policy,  but  formulating  an 
historical  inference.  Britain  was  not  only  occupied  by  Roman  troops 
and  by  the  turbulent  inhabitants  whom  tiie  former  were  emj^loyed  to 
keep  in  check;  it  was  occupied  also  by  a  larye  body  of  Italian  and 
Gaulish  colonists,  attracted  to  the  new  country  by  the  favourable 
conditions  attached  to  its  occupancy,  and  by  the  accounts,  true  or 
magnified,  of  its  natural  resources,  which  reached  Rome  through  the 
medium  of  the  provincial  authorities.  These  colonists  were  composed 
at  first  chiefly  of  the  adventurous  classes,  miners,  frontier-traders, 
camp-followers  and  pioneers,  like  the  miner,  Curtius  Rufus,  who  had 
nothing  to  lose  and  everything  to  gain.^  As  time  wore  on  it  was  per- 
ceived that  Britain  was  not  a  mere  gold  and  silver  country,  like  Spain, 
to  be  plundered,  devastated  and  abandoned  to  adventurers;  it  was 
also  a  pastoral,  agricultural  and  commercial  province,  like  Gaul,  which 
already  had  become  a  prosperous  colony.  From  this  time  onward  the 
class  of  immigrants  greatly  improved  and  instead  of  the  bludgeon, 
chain  and  whip,  symbols  of  mine-slavery,  they  brought  with  them  the 
plough, tlie  mattock,  the  pruning-knife  and  the  economy  and  thrift  of 
agricultural  life.  This  Italian  occupancy  of  Britain  is  proved  by  the 
numerous  and  extensive  mechanical  works,  the  remains  of  which  are 
to  be  found  in  nearly  every  county  of  England  and  Wales,  as  well  as 
in  the  lowlands  of  Scotland.  The  Walls  of  Agricola  and  Severusand 
the  coast-castles,  were  probably  built  by  the  army,  assisted  by  native 
labourers;  but  the  cities,  temples,  villas,  baths,  statues,  altars,  orna- 
mental tombs,  tasselated  pavements,  mosaics,  etc.,  are  of  a  character 
that  bespeak  the  presence  of  an  artistic  class,  who  wouhl  hardly  have 
left  Rome  to  live  in  Britain,  without  the  incentive  of  high  wages  and 
permanent  employment.  Under  the  metallic  system,  which  Rome  had 
tlevised  for  her  own  advantage — a  system  which  withdrew  from  the 
provinces  their  product  of  the  precious  metals,  to  heap  it  up  at  the 
world's  moneyed  centre,such  conditions  of  prosperity  in  Britain  would 
have  been  impossible  without  a  provincial  money  substantially  inde- 
pendent of  Rome,  'i'his  means  money  not  composed  of  gold  or  silver, 
or,  if  so,  only  in  small  part;  so  that  the  exportation  of  the  metallic 
product  of  the  province  to  Rome,  which  if  Rome  had  had  her  own 
way  would  have  kept  it  forever  poor,  was  by  these  means  divested  of 
its  injurious  influence. 

With  this  understanding,  we  are  better  prepared  to  follow  the  de- 
tails of  the  metallic  production.  The  expedition  under  Aulus  Plautius 
evidently  followed  the  Valley  of  the  Thames  to  the  source  of  that 

*  Tacitus,  Annals,  xi,  2021. 


112  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

river  at  Cirencester,  probably  panning  for  gold  all  the  way  along  and 
finding  little  or  none.  After  establishing  a  camp  at  Cirencester,  which 
eventually  developed  into  an  important  manufacturing  city,  the  Ro- 
mans retraced  their  steps  down  the  valley  of  the  river  to  Wallingford, 
forty-six  miles  west  of  the  future  Metropolis,  where  the  ocean  tides 
made  their  appearance.  They  established  camps  both  here  and  at  the 
confluence  of  the  Thames  and  Lea;  near  London.*  Soon  after  this, 
the  sovereign-pontiff,  Claudius,  arrived  to  "complete"  a  conquest 
which  was  in  fact  already  effected.  After  a  stay  of  but  sixteen  days 
in  Britain,  that  divinity  returned  to  Rome. 

The  nature  of  the  instructions  left  with  Aulus  Plautius  is  evidenced 
by  the  expeditions  which  were  soon  after  sent  into  the  Cotswold  Hills 
and  subsequently  into  North  Wales,  in  which  last  named  locality  the 
natives  had  evidently  reported  the  existence  of  gold-placers.  We  have 
but  scant  means  of  measuring  the  commercial  success  of  these  expe- 
ditions; and  can  only  conclude  trom  the  present  appearance  of  the 
ground,  that  the  deposits  were  small  and  soon  exhausted.  Down  to 
this  time  tin  had  been  produced  in  Britain  chiefly  by  "streaming," 
a  process  similar  to  washing  placer-gold.  As  yet,  no  subterranean 
tin  mines  had  been  developed;  but  streaming  had  been  and  was  yet 
to  be,  conducted  on  so  large  a  scale,  as  to  foul  the  harbours  of  Ply- 
mouth, Dartmouth,  Tynemouth,  Falmouth  and  Fowey,  with  mining 
debris,  and  render  it  necessary,  at  later  periods,  to  repair  the  injury 
thus  occasioned.  On  this  subject  Anderson  cites  the  statute  of 
23  Henry  VHL  (1532)  which  provides  for  the  mending  of  these  ha- 
vens, choked  up  by  the  gravel  from  stream  works. ^  As  these  works 
had  been  going  on  since  the  earliest  period  of  British  history  "  and 
most  actively  during  the  Roman  period,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  the  fouling  of  the  havens  by  mining  debris,  had  begun  ages 
before  the  enactment  of  the  statute;  most  probably  during  the  Ro- 
man tera. 

"*  There  are  various  monkish  legends  to  account  for  this  name,  the  popular  one,  from 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  who  connects  it  with  the  fabulous  King  Lud,  has  the  disad- 
vantage of  being  complicated  with  the  Trojan  ^^ineas,  15rutus,  etc.  We  know  forcer- 
tain  that  London  had  its  present  name,  that  is  to  say,  Londinium,  the  Latin  form  of 
it,  so  early  as  the  period  of  Tacitus;  for  it  is  so  written  in  his  Annals,  xiv,  33.  Among 
several  remains  of  Norse  council  rings.  Mallet  found  one  at  Lunden  in  Scania.  There 
are  several  other  Lundens  in  Sweden  and  Denmark.  The  Trinobantes,  who  occupied 
the  country  north  of  London,  when  the  Romans  first  took  possession  of  it,  were  a 
Gothic  tribe;  and  it  may  be  reasonably  conjectured  that  following  an  almost  universal 
custom,  the  name  of  the  place  was  brought  by  their  forefathers  from  their  ancient 
home  in  Gotland. 

^  History  of  Commerce,  n,  56.  *  Herodotus,  Thalia,  cxv. 


HRITAIN  113 

Roman  placer  niiiunj;  for  gold,  and  streainin;^  for  tin,  was  followed 
by  subterranean  mining  for  these  and  other  nietals  and  minerals, 
namely,  gold,  silver,  tin,  lead,  copper,  iron,  jet,  chalk,  buiiding-stone, 
and  mineral  coals.  'I'he  gold  quartz  mines  opened  by  the  Romans  are 
too  numerous  to  mention.  Remains  of  their  prospecting  and  mining 
works  are  to  be  fouml  at  dogofan,  indeed  all  over  Caermarthenshire, 
in  the  valley  of  the  Mawdatch  and  other  parts  of  Wales.  The  gold 
mines  were  all  worked  for,  or  on  account  of,  the  Imperial  fisc.  All 
golil  found  in  the  earth  and  all  "  treasure  trove"  belonged  by  right 
to  the  sovereign-pontiff.'  The  coinage  of  gold  was  also  a  sacerdotal 
prerogative,  strictly  monopolized  by  the  sovereign-pontiff,  and  always 
conducted  near  the  place  of  his  residence. 

Silver  lead  ores  were  excavated  in  Derbyshire  and  Monmouthshire 
and  calamine  and  silver-zinc  ores  in  Shropshire,  where  the  deposits 
were  followed  far  into  the  hills.  Silver,  or  silver-lead  mines  were 
worked  in  Northumbria  and  especially  at  Allendale  and  Alston-Moor; 
in  Derbyshire,  at  Wirksworth  and  near  the  Peak  (opened  tempo  Ha- 
driano)  at  Shelve  in  Shropshire  (opened  tempo  Trajano), in  the  Mendip 
Hills  of  Somersetshire  (opened  A.D.  49)  where  pigs  have  been  found 
cast  with  the  words  "  Britanicus  "and  "  Vespasiano;  "and  at  Kangie, 
near  Cheddar,  (opened  tempo  Vespasiano)  where  the  reduction  works 
were  of  unusual  size.  Here,  the  refuse,  which  the  imperfect  appli- 
ances of  the  miners  forced  them  to  cast  aside  as  worthless,  has  been 
smelted  and  re-smelted,  in  modern  times,  with  profitable  results.  It 
is  only  a  few  years  since  some  of  these  re-smelting  works  were  in 
operation.  . 

A  Roman  ingot  of  silver  weighing  320  metric  grams  (493 ^^  Eng- 
lish grains)  was  found  in  1777  within  the  Tower  of  London  and  is 
described  in  "  Arcluxologia,"  vol.  V.  If  this  was  a  talent,  then  divide 
its  weight  by  12  anil  5=60  and  we  have  the  aureus  of  Sz^i  English 
grains.  This  weight  would  assign  the  ingot  to  the  period  of  Aurelian's 
second  coinage,  A.D.  274.  Should  this  conjecture  prove  to  be  well 
founded,  this  is  the  oldest  "  dollar  "  in  existence.  Other  Roman  silver 
ingots  have  been  found  in  Coleraine,  Ireland,  with  a  large  hoard  of 
Roman  silver  coins.' 

The  frequent  disturbance  of  the  ground  has  left  but  few  memorials 
of  the  Roman  occupation  on  or  near  the  surface,  but  enough  remains 

■*  Such  was  the  l.iw  down  to  the  reign  of  Nerva  and  probably  down  to  that  of  Ha- 
drian who  diviticd  treasure-trove  equally  between  the  discoverer  and  the  Crown.  Del 
Mar's  Middle  -Anes  Revisited,  pp.  105,  255.  359. 

*  "  Mining  operations  and  metallurgy  of  the  Romans  in  England  and  Wales.''  by 
Rev.  J.  Chas.  fox.  of  Derbyshire:  Read  before  the  .Arch.x-ological  Institute:  July  27' 
1S94:   .\rch.vologicaI  Journal.  1S95,  p.  25. 


114  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

to  show  that  Kangie  was  once  an  important  mining  camp.  Founda- 
tions of  buildings  have  been  traced,  and  fine  Samian  wares,  rude 
native  pottery,  and  Roman  coins,  ornaments,  tools  and  weapons  have 
been  exhumed  in  the  "Townfield."  A  broken  tablet  records  that  the 
Armenian  Legion  was  once  garrisoned  here. 

Huge  pigs  of  lead  still  exist  bearing  the  names  of  Vespasiano  and 
Antoninus.  Little  else  remains  near  the  ancient  camp;  but  in  all  the 
country  around — 

Some  trace  of  Imperial  tenure,  now 
Clashes  at  times  on  the  peasant's  plough. 
Fragments  of  graceful  vases 

With  gods  and  heroes  traced; 
Records  of  Roman  triumph 

In  letters  half  effaced: 
A  tarnished  ring  whose  fiery  gems, 

Still  on  its  circle  set. 
From  the  far  sands  of  Indus  brought, 
Gleam  through  their  setting  rudely  wrought 
As  if  the  skies  their  hues  had  caught, 
Flamed  in  their  glory  yet. 

Copper  mines  were  worked  by  the  Romans  in  Montgomeryshire, 
Denbighshire,  Shropshire,  and  the  Island  of  Anglesea.  Like  those 
of  silver-lead,  most  of  the  copper  mines  of  Britain  yielded  a  small 
proportion  of  silver.  The  lead  mines  were  free  to  be  worked  by  any 
Roman  citizen.  The  silver-lead  mines  were  farmed  or  leased  by  the 
Roman  procurators  to  favoured  individuals,  or  companies,  who  worked 
them  on  their  own  account,  paying  certain  taxes  and  dues  to  the  fisc, 
based  upon  production. 

At  first,  the  deposits  of  lead  ore  were  near  the  surface;  these  proved 
so  profitable  that,like  the  old  hand-placers  of  California, the  holdings 
were  divided  into  small  properties,  or,  as  Pliny  puts  it,  the  quantity 
of  ore  permitted  to  be  worked  by  any  individual  was  limited  by  miner's 
law.*  Mr.  Wright  thinks  the  lead  ores  thus  alluded  to  were  those  of 
Shelve  in  Shropshire.  There  is  a  reason,  which  possibly  escaped  the 
observation  of  that  distinguished  antiquarian,  for  believing  that  the 
law  alluded  to  by  Pliny,  related  to  the  lead  mines  in  the  Peak  of  Derby. 
The  reason  is  that  the  law  is  still  in  force;  and  so  far  as  is  known,  it 
has  continued  to  be  in  force  for  upwards  of  eighteen  centuries. 

The  law  of  the  Commonwealth  permitted  any  Roman  citizen  to 
search  for  and  locate  or  "  denounce  "  mines.  He  was  authorized  to 
sink  and  dig  mines  or  veins  of  ores,  in  or  under  all,  except  conse- 
crated, lands,  no  matter  to  whom  they  belonged;  and  to  follow  his 

^  "  Natural  History,"  xxxiv,  49. 


BRITAIN.  I  15 

vein  whithersoever  it  led.  The  condition  attached  to  this  privilege 
was  that  of  continuous  working.  If  the  citizen  abandont-tl  his  mining 
claim  for  a  given  time,  it  was  liable  to  be  taken  up  and  worked  by 
any  other  citizen.  These  principles  of  the  Roman  mining  law  will  be 
found  established  to-day  in  all  those  countries  in  which  such  law  has 
not  been  disturbed  by  the  imperial  and  medieval  system  ;  for  instance, 
in  all  of  North  and  South  America,  and  in  some  portions  of  Africa, 
countries  which  derived  them  direct  from  the  Civil  Code.  After  the 
wars  of  Marius  and  Sylla,  this  mining  law,  so  far  as  it  covered  gold 
and  silver  mines,  was  modified.  During  the  Empire,  the  gold  mines 
were  regarded  as  belonging  exclusively  to  the  sovereign-pontiff;  the 
silver  mines  were  resigned  to  the  nobles;  while  those  of  the  baser 
metals,  including  lead,  continued,  though  not  entirely  as  before,  to 
be  open  to  location,  "denouncement,"  and  working  by  citizens.  When 
the  Roman  laws  were  codified  by  Justinian,  the  mining  rule  under- 
went some  further  modification.'" 

The  mining  rule,  as  modified  by  Justinian,  became  the  law  of  the 
province  of  Britain,  so  fast  as  that  country  was  rescued  from  Gothic 
(pagan)  to  christian  control.  In  those  portions  which  longest  re- 
mained subject  to  paganism,  notably  the  kingdom  of  Mercia  (form- 
erly Flavia  Cresariensis)  the  ancient  mining  law  of  the  Roman  Com- 
monwealth continued  to  prevail;  and  under  that  law,  any  citizen,  or 
subject  of  Mercia,  was  at  liberty  to  locate  and  work  lead  mines  on, 
or  under,  all  except  consecrated  lands,  no  matter  to  whom  they  be- 
longed; prcn-ided  that  he  did  not  abandon  his  work  for  more  than  a 
certain  interval."  It  was  in  this  manner  that  the  Peak  of  Derby  was 
worked.  The  limit  of  mining  ground  permitted  to  be  taken  up  by  a 
miner  is  believed  to  have  been  300  Roman  feet,  on  the  ledge  or  vein, 
without  any  limit  as  to  his  right  to  follow  the  course.  Mercia  was 
converted  to  Christianity  in  the  ninth  century.  By  this  time,  how- 
ever, the  Roman  Civil  law  had  become  partly  submergetl  beneath  the 
Canon  law,  and  the  former  was  kept  out  of  view  until  after  the  Fall 
of  Constantinople.  Thus  it  failed  to  supplant  the  ancient  Roman 
mining  law  of  Mercia,  as  it  had  supplanted  the  law  in  the  other  king- 
doms of  the  Heptarchy,  Hence  the  ancient  law,  in  the  guise  of  "  im- 
memorial custom,"  continued  to  rule  the  miners  of  the  Peak. 

'*  It  appears  in  the  Code,  11,  7,  (6)  under  the  title:  De  Metallariis  et  metalis  et  pro- 
curatoribus  mctallorum. 

"  This  intcr^^^l  in  the  Peak  of  Derby  is  now  three  weeks,  not  counting  any  time 
during  which  the  mine  may  be  underwater,  etc.  The  inter\al  of  abandonment,  neces- 
sary' to  vacate  a  claim,  in  any  .Spanish  or  .-Nmerican  State,  is  one  year;  in  Portugal  and 
its  colonies,  it  is  one  year  and  a  day.  This  last,  was  probably  the  law  of  the  Roman 
commonwealth. 


Il6  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

In  1287  (16  Edw.  I)  a  Mining  Commission,  the  first  of  its  kind  since 
the  Roman  period,  consisting  of  twelve  persons,  was  authorized  by 
the  King  to  examine  into  the  laws  and  conditions  under  which  min- 
ing was  prosecuted  throughout  the  realm.  Among  other  matters,  this 
Commission  reported,  as  to  the  rights  and  customs  of  the  Peak  of 
Derby,  that  "  the  miners  claimed  by  no  charter,  but  immemorial  cus- 
tom. "  These  rights  seem  to  have  been  now  for  the  first  time  curtailed. 
Under  the  Roman  law  the  miner  was  entitled  to  work  any  unlocated 
claim  to  the  extent  of  say,  three  meers,  or  300  Roman  feet.  Under 
the  modification  established  by  Edward  I.,  he  was  only  entitled  to 
work  two  meers,  the  third  meer  pertaining  to  his  location,  going  to 
the  King.  In  case  the  King  either  directly  or  through  lessees,  failed 
to  work  his  portion,  (which  portion  he  was  at  liberty  to  choose  from 
either  side  of  the  located  claim,)  then  the  locator  had  the  right  to 
purchase  the  third  meer,  at  a  price  to  be  fixed  by  arbitration.  It  is 
probably  from  this  period  that  the  district  over  which  this  regulation 
prevailed  was  called  the  King's  Field,  or  Fee.  Mr.  Tapling,  from 
whose  works  some  of  these  details  are  derived,  follows  the  Crown 
lawyers  by  insinuating  that  under  a  rescript  of  Valentinian  and  Valens, 
all  mines  were  held  by  the  Emperor,  to  whom  was  due  a  "royalty," 
consisting  of  a  portion  of  the  ores  extracted ;  but  the  use  of  this  term 
finds  no  support  either  in  the  Roman  institutes,  or  the  customs  of 
those  countries  or  districts  where  the  Roman  institutes  prevailed,  or 
still  prevail.  The  basis  of  the  Roman  law  was  the  right  of  the  citizen 
to  pursue  mining  on  any,  except  consecrated,  ground;  the  basis  of  a 
royalty  is  the  assumed  proprietorship  or  paramountship  of  the  land 
on  which  the  mining  is  done. 

From  1287  to  185 1  no  further  alteration  was  made  in  the  customs 
of  the  Peak,  but  by  this  time,  their  extreme  antiquity  and  lack  of 
congruity  with  the  mining  laws  of  the  remainder  of  the  Kingdom, 
had  led  to  conflict  and  litigation.  To  remedy  this,  the  Act  XIV  and 
XV  Victoria,  c.  94  was  passed,  which  pretends,  without  essentially 
altering  the  custom,  to  give  it  more  precision  and  uniformity.  The 
preamble  to  this  act  contains  the  following  rule:  "It  is  lawful  for  all 
the  subjects  of  this  realm  to  search  for,  sink,  or  dig  mines  or  veins 
of  lead  ore,  upon,  in,  or  under,  all  manner  of  lands,  of  whose  inheri- 
tance soever  they  may  be;  cTiurches,  churchyards,  places  for  public 
worship,  burial  grounds,  dwelling  houses,  orchards,  gardens,  pleasure 
grounds,  and  highways  excepted."  Here  is  the  old  Roman  law  again, 
this  time  with  several  more  limitations  attached  to  it,  but  essentially 
the  law  of  the  Commonwealth,  which,  without  any  interruption  what- 


r.kiiAiN  117 

ever,  continued  to  be,  and  still  remains  the  law  of  the  Peak  of  Derby, 
which  was  in  force  when  the  leaden  pigs  with  the  Imperial  stamps, 
that  now  adorn  our  museums,  were  cast  in  tlie  province  of  Flavia 
C;vsariensis. 

There  was. probably  another  feature  in  the  Roman  mining  law,  as 
it  existed  when  Britain  was  conquered,  which,  with  equal  probabililyj 
was  greatly  modified  about  the  time  of  Vespasian,  during  whose  reign 
Britain  was  pacified.  This  was  the  right  of  the  conquerors,  like  that 
one  exercised  at  a  later  date  by  the  Spanish  conquerors  of  America, 
to  claim  and  select  a  certain  number  of  the  natives  and  compel  them 
to  work  in  the  mines,  upon  condition  of  affording  them  protection, 
shelter  and  subsistence.  This  system,  called  in  Latin  commendatio, 
and  in  Spanish  encomienda,  was  probably  the  origin  of  the  Medieval- 
English  custom  of  commendation.  It  gave  rise  to  great  cruelties  on 
the  part  of  the  colonists.  The  sordid  exactions  of  an  alien  church 
occasioned  other  cruelties.  Together,  these  causes  are  responsible 
for  many  of  the  revolts  of  natives,  which  distinguish  the  Roman  oc- 
cupation of  Britain. 

The  silver  extracted  from  the  British  mines,  when  separated  from 
all  impurities  and  cast  into  bars,  and  after  the  payment  of  taxes  and 
of  other  charges  for  refining  and  stamping,  was  purchased  by  the  Ro- 
man mints,  at  its  lawful  value,  which  was  always  one-twelfth  that  of 
gold,  weight  for  weight. 

Remains  of  Roman  iron  mines  have  been  found  in  many  parts  of 
Britain,  in  Maresfield,  Sedlescombe  and  Westfield,  Sussex;  in  Lux- 
borough,  in  the  Brendon  Hills,  in  Luccombe  on  the  confines  of  Ex- 
moor  Forest  ami  in  other  parts  of  West  Somersetshire;  in  Lanchester, 
near  Hadrian's  Wall,  Durham;  and  at  several  places  in  Monmouth, 
Hereford,  Worcester  and  Gloucester,  such  as  Berry  Hills,  near  Ross 
and  in  the  Forest  of  Dean.  These  last  named  mines  appear  to  have 
been  the  most  extensive.  The  Romans  used  chiefly  the  hematites, 
nodules  and  bog-iron,  not  touchiug  the  more  difficult  clay  iron-stone 
of  the  carboniferous  series.  According  to  Yarranlon,  who  employed 
himself  in  reworking  the  ancient  cinder-heaps,  the  Romans  used  the 
foot-blast.  Vast  numbers  of  coins,  chiefly  bronze,  were  found  in  the 
refuse." 

The  jet  obtained  by  the  Romans  in  Britain  was  what  is  now  known 
as  cannel-coal,  and  of  this  substance,  numerous  articles  of  use  and 
ornament  were  made,  either  by  carving  or  turning.  Great  numbers  of 
these  objects  are  preserved  in  our  museums.      The  Roman  quarries 

'■"  Varranton,  "  England's  Improvement,"  II,  162. 


Il8  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

of  chalk  and  building-stone  can  no  longer  be  distinguished,  on  ac- 
count of  modern  extensions  of  their  works;  but  we  have  abundant 
remains  to  prove  how  industriously  they  were  developed. 

The  most  interesting  of  the  mining  remains  are  those  of  coals.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Romans  opened  coal  mines  at  South  Ben- 
well,  Chester,  (North  Tyne;)  at  a  place  near  Wirksworth  in  Derby- 
shire; at  another  near  Grindon  Lake,  by  Sewing  Shields,  in  Shrop- 
shire (Uriconium);  and  elsewhere.  Some  of  these  ancient  workings 
remain  untouched.  Cinders  and  soot  from  mineral  coals  have  also 
been  found  with  Roman  remains,  (in  Britain)  other  than  those  of  the 
mines. '^ 

Yet  for  nearly  a  thousand  years  after  they  had  abandoned  these 
mines, the  use  of  stone-coals  appears  to  have  been  unknown;  and  had 
to  be  rediscovered  or  reintroduced.  This  may  be  due  to  the  fact, 
already  noticed,  that  subterranean  mining,  whether  of  gold,  silver, 
iron,  or  coal,  involves  large  capitals,  permanent  works,  systematic 
procedure  and  good  government;  and  that  all  these  advantages  were 
lost  to  Britain  when  its  Roman  government  began  to  decay. 

Before  this  came  to  pass,  that  is  to  say,  during  the  early  Empire, 
and  in  order  to  convey  the  produce  of  the  mines  to  the  mills  and 
smelting  furnaces,  roads  were  opened  between  them,  which  had  the 
further  use  to  bring  the  agriculturists  and  townsmen  into  communi- 
cation; and  thus  promote  commercial  intercourse  and  the  growth  of 
new  industries.  So  rapidly  did  these  various  industries  attract  and  so 
liberally  did  they  maintain,  an  industrious  population  in  Britain,  that 
within  eighty  years  from  the  period  of  its  conquest,  it  was  sufficiently 
important  to  merit  a  ceremonious  visit  from  the  divine  Hadrian,  and 
opulent  enough  to  sustain  a  vast  expenditure  for  new  fortifications 
and  fleets.  But  within  a  century  of  this  period  the  decline  of  Britain 
began  and  in  this  decline,  mining  fell, to  rise  no  more,  until  it  shared 
in  the  general  Renaissance  of  all  European  industries. 


''  Address  of  Sir  J.  L.  Bell  to  the  North  of  England  Institute  of  Mining  and  Me- 
chanical Engineers,  August,  18S7.  A  license  to  dig  stone  coals  near  Newcastle  is  said 
to  have  been  granted  by  Henry  III.,  in  1239.  Sea  coals,  (the  same  as  stone-coals,) 
were  forbidden  to  be  used  for  fuel,  for  the  reason,  alleged  by  Stow,  that  they  were 
"  prejudicial  to  human  health."  Haydn.  There  may  have  been  a  far  different,  an  ec- 
clesiastical, reason  for  the  inhibition.  However  this  may  be,  a  man  was  executed  in 
London  during  the  14th  century  for  infracting  this  law.  Proc.  Soc.  Scotish  Antiqua- 
ries, 1S86-7,  p.  95.  The  Scotch-Norsemen,  who  were  less  amenable  to  ecclesiastical 
restraint  than  the  English,  used  stone-coals  for  fuel,  so  early  as  1291.   Ibid. 


119 


CHAPTER   X. 

EUROPE    DURING    THE    MIDDLE    AGES. 

The  Barbarian  irruptions  fail  to  account  for  the  decline  of  mining — The  gold 
mines  were  controlled  by  tlie  Roman  hierarchical  fisc — Copper  mines  by  the  Senate — 
Silver  mines  by  the  proconsuls — These  various  classes  of  mines  flourished  or  de- 
clined with  the  powers  or  policy  that  controlled  them — The  gold  mines  rose  and  fell 
with  the  hierarchy — The  copper  mines  declined  with  the  Senate — The  Roman  silver 
mines  alone  never  stopped — Mines  of  Thrace — Moesia — Illyria — Pannonia — Ilis- 
pania — Ciaul — Britain — In  the  sixth  century  the  silver  mines  of  Central  Europe 
passed  from  the  control  of  the  Romans  to  that  of  the  pagan  Avars,  Czechs  and 
Saxons — In  the  eighth  century  those  of  Ilispania  and  l.usitania  passed  to  the  Sara- 
cens— Sudden  revival  of  mining  after  the  Kail  of  Constantinople — The  legal  value  of 
silver  raised  by  the  independent  princes — Carlovingian  Conquest  of  the  Saxons  and 
Avars — Medieval  plunder  of  the  Moslems — Sporadic  plunder  of  the  Lombards  and 
Jews — Gold  washings  of  the  Ebro,  Darro,  Douro,  Sil,  Minho,  Elbe,  Rhine,  Danube, 
Rhone,  Guadalquiver,  Tagus  and  Garonne — Mines  opened  by  the  Moslems  in  Spain, 
Africa  and  Asia — Despoilment  of  Moslem  Spain. 

IN  his  work  on  the  Precious  Metals,  Mr.  William  Jacob  attributes 
the  relinc}uishment  of  mining  by  the  Romans  to  the  Parbarian 
Irruptions  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  of  our  acra;  and  he 
declares  that  during  the  entire  interval,  from  the  sixth  to  the 
fifteenth  centuries,  "the  precious  metals  were  sought,  not  by  ex- 
ploring the  bowels  of  the  earth,  but  by  the  more  summary  process 
of  conquest,  tribute  and  plunder."  This  hardly  states  tiie  case 
correctly.  Though  there  is  no  positive  evidence  to  sustain  the  con- 
jecture, it  is  quite  likely  that  the  barbarian  revolts  ancl  disturbances 
led  to  the  abandonment  by  the  Romans  of  many  of  their  mines;  but 
these  disturbances  must  have  lost  their  influence  many  centuries 
before  the  fifteenth:  and  while  it  is  not  doubted  that  mining  as  a 
whole  declined  during  this  interval,  it  is  believed  that  it  did  not  de- 
cline at  the  time,  nor  for  the  reasons,  nor  in  the  sweeping  manner 
indicated  by  Mr.  Jacob. 

Down  to  the  fourth  century  the  Romans  worked  gold,  silver  and 
copper  mines  in  nearly  every  province  of  the  Empire.  Compara- 
tively few  of  their  mines  were  north  of  the  Danube,  and  chief  among 


I20  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

them  were  those  of  Britain  and  Pannonia. '  The  Roman  mining 
industry  was  at  its  height  in  the  Augustan  period:  in  the  reign  of 
Diocletian  it  had  greatly  declined,  especially  gold  mining:  in  that  of 
Constantine,  mining  generally  was  in  a  moribund  condition,  although, 
as  we  shall  presently  see,  silver  mining  continued  with  less  abate- 
ment than  gold.  From  the  Augustan  asra,  the  gold  mines  were  under 
the  exclusive  control  of  the  Hierarchical  Fisc,  the  copper  mines  were 
subjected  to  the  Senate,  the  silver  mines  were  resigned  to  the  pro- 
consuls or  viceroys,  and  each  of  these  classes  of  mines  seems,  in 
fact,  to  have  followed  the  fate  of  the  power  which  encouraged,  pat- 
ronized or  protected  them.  The  Senate  expired  in  the  reign  of 
Claudius ;  the  Hierarchy,  though  it  held  the  monopoly  of  gold,  was  un- 
able to  work  the  gold  mines  at  a  profit  after  the  reign  of  Theodosius;  ^ 
whilst  the  proconsuls,  who  gradually  developed  into  counts,  dukes 
and  exarchs,  and  at  a  subsequent  period  into  feudal  sovereigns, 
continued  the  search  for  silver  with  scarcely  diminished  energy. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  hear  of  little  or  no  copper  mining  after 
the  Augustan,  and  little  or  no  gold  mining  after  the  Theodosian 
sera.  On  the  other  hand,  silver  mining  never  stopped,  although 
it  fell  away,  as  all  things  fell  away,  within  the  Empire  during 
the  Medieval  Ages,  including  population,  commerce,  the  arts,  and 
consequently  the  demand  of  jewelers  and  other  artizans  for  the  pre 
cious  metals.  Gibbon  assures  us  that  the  mines  of  Thrace,  Moesia 
(Servia),  and  Illyria  were  still  worked  by  the  Romans  during  the 
fourth  century.  So,  too,  were  the  mines  of  Orsova  in  the  Banat; 
Guadalcanal,  Constantina  and  Novo  Cartago  in  Spain;  the  district  of 
Isere  (L'Argentiere,  LaGardette  and  Allemont  mines)  and  others  in 
Gaul,  as  well  as  those  of  Britain.     Dr.  Adolt  Gurlt  in  the  '•  Metallur- 

'  Tacitus,  Annals  xi,  20,  says  that  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  Curtius  Rufus,  a 
Roman  of  mean  extraction,  but  afterwards  proconsul  in  Africa,  discovered  a  silver 
vein  in  the  country  of  the  Mattiacci.  This  is  believed  to  be  the  same  with  Marpourg 
or  Marburg  in  Hesse  Nassau.  For  early  Roman  mining  in  Britain,  see  the  author's 
"Ancient  Britain,"  Calvert's  "  Rocks  of  Britain,"  and  the  address  of  the  Rev.  J. 
Chas.  Cox,  to  the  Archaeological  Institute,  in  their  Journal  for  1S95,  p.  25. 

^  The  reason  why  the  Roman  Fisc  was  unable  to  work  the  gold  mines  at  a  profit 
was  due  to  its  own  policy.  It  fixed  the  ratio  between  silver  and  gold  at  12  for  i,  and 
exacted  its  tributes  at  this  ratio.  It  was,  therefore,  cheaper  for  it  to  procure  gold  for 
silver  in  India,  where  the  ratio  was  but  6  or  bj4.  for  i,  than  to  delve  for  gold  in  Eu- 
rope. The  adoption  of  the  Indian  ratio  by  the  Saracens  rendered  the  commercial 
aspect  of  this  policy  profitable  so  long  as  the  Arabian  Empire  survived  in  Egypt  and 
Spain,  both  of  which  were  gold-producing  countries,  and  both  willing  to  exchange 
their  gold  for  the  silver  of  the  Romans.  When  the  Hierarchy  fell,  many  of  the  an- 
cient gold  mines  of   Europe  were  re-opened. 


EUROPE    DURING    THK    MIDDLK    AGES.  IJl 

gical  Review,"  also  includes  the  silver  mines  at  Wiesloch,  near 
Hiedelberg,  at  Blissenbuch,  near  Engelskirchen,  and  others  near 
Halzap|)e  and  Ems,  but  without  givinsj;  dates;  so  that  it  is  tjuite  pos- 
sible that  he  is  mistaken  as  to  who  worked  them,  and  that  they  were 
opened  by  the  Saxons  and  not  the  Romans.  In  the  fifth  century  we 
only  know  of  silver  mines  being  worked  by  the  Romans  in  the 
Felsobanya  district  of  Pannonia,  or  Hungary.  These  contained 
some  gold.  In  the  si.xth  century  mining,  within  the  Roman  Empire 
and  under  the  Roman  Government,  almost  came  to  an  end.  The 
Roman  Government  itself  gradually  shrank  to  the  limits  of  Greece 
and  Asia  Minor. 

On  the  other  hand,  A.  D.  550,  the  pagan  Avars  opened  the  electrum 
(gold  and  silver)  mines  of  Kremnitz,  and  the  silver  mines  of  Chem- 
nitz and  Transylvania  (Vorrspatak)  ^  In  the  seventh  century  these 
mines  were  still  working,  and  to  them  was  now  added  the  silver  dis- 
trict of  Rothausberg  in  Bohemia.*  In  the  eighth  century  the  heret- 
ical Arabs  opened  the  gold  and  silver  mines  of  Spain,  while  the 
pagan  Czechs  and  Avars  worked  those  of  Bohemia  (Rothausberg), 
Transylvania,  Croatia,  the  Banat  (Orsova)  and  the  Carpathians;  and 
the  pagan  Saxons,  those  of  the  Hartz  and  Tyrol — for  example, 
Andreasberg  and  Zell.*  In  the  ninth  century  there  are  few  or  no 
records  of  European  mining  except  in  Arabian  Spain.  In  the  tenth 
century  (A.  D.  941),  the  Rammelsberg  and  Clausthal  silver  mines 
of  the  Hartz  were  opened  by  the  pagan  Saxons,  and  Kuarzim,  in 
Bohemia,  A.  D.  998,  by  the  Czechs.  In  the  eleventh  century,  in  ad- 
dition to  numerous  gold  and  silver  mines  in  Arabian  Spain,  the  sands 
of  the  Tagus,  in  Portugal,  were  washed  for  gold  by  the  Arabs.  In 
the  twelfth  century  the  Freiberg  silver  mines  of  the  Erzebirge  were 
opened  by  the  Saxons.  L'Argentiere,  in  the  French  Alps,  was  also 
re-opened.     In  all  these  cases,  except  the  unimportant  one  last  men- 

*  At  Vorrspatak,  gold,  silver  and  g)-psum  are  worked  in  "  veins  traversing  a  tertiary 
sandstone,  being  about  tlie  only  known  instance  of  such  a  mode  of  occurrence," 
Encyc.  Brit.  cd..  iSSb.  The  writer  has  inspected  similar  mines  in  Southern  Utah 
("  Dixie")  and  Mexico.  From  the  Utah  sandstone  silver  mines,  live  frogs  have  been 
taken,  proving  that  the  formation  is  very  recent. 

*  Rothausberg  or  Rathausburg  is  near  Gastein,  .Austrian  Alps,  9,000  feet  above  sea 
level. 

*  Zell  is  believed  to  have  originally  yielded  more  silver  than  gold,  and  afterwards 
more  gold  than  silver,  which  is  uncommon.  The  silver  mines  of  Nrakonya,  between 
Dubova  and  Ogradena  (Orsova  district),  were  worked  by  the  Romans,  as  also  were 
thegold  mines  above  Bogshan  (Carpathians);  others  at  NVicsskirchen,  near  the  Danube; 
and  still  others  in  Transylvania.  The  writer  inspected  those  of  Bogshan  some  fifteen 
years  ago,  and  found  in  them  undoubted  marks  of  Roman  workmanship. 


122  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

tioned,  these  mines  were  opened  or  re-opened  by  heretics  or  pagans, 
none  of  them  by  the  Romans  or  Christians.  This  circumstance  has 
already  been  noticed,  commented  upon  and  explained  in  our  "His- 
tory of  Monetary  Systems." 

In  the  thirteenth  century  there  occurred  a  sudden  and  extraor- 
dinary revival  of  mining  within  the  boundaries  of  Christendom.  For 
example:  Marienberg;  Annaberg;  Schneeberg  (from  1320  to  1350  this 
district  produced  100,000  lbs.  weight  of  silver  per  annum);"'  Johann- 
Georgenstadt;  Joachimsthal;  Wiestock  in  Baden;  the  silver  mines 
of  the  Lahn  (Nassau);'  Blissenbruck  and  other  mines  in  the  valleys 
of  the  Sieg  and  Agga;  Kitzbuchel  and  Rohrerbuchel  (Tyrol);  the 
Kaurzim  district  of  Bohemia  (A.  D.  1284),  the  Adelbert  mine  of  the 
Prizibram  district  of  Bohemia;  Neusohl,  Schmolinitz,  Nagybanya, 
Abrudbanya.  and  other  districts  in  Hungary;  Farehajer;  Salzburg 
(silver);  Altenberg  (electrum);  Shellgadin  (called  from  its  richness 
"  The  Throne  of  Plutus  ") ;  the  silver  mines  of  Sardinia,  re-opened 
by  the  Pisans,  1 283 ;  the  mines  of  Servia  and  Illyria  re-opened  by  the 
Venetians;  the  silver  mines  of  Guadalcanal,  and  others  in  the  Sierra 
Morena  of  Spain;  the  Almaden  quicksilver  mines  of  the  same  coun- 
try. In  France,  the  silver  mines  L'Argentiere  and  others  re-opened 
in  the  Isere  district,  Bouxeda  and  Pugalduc  in  Languedoc,  Paleyrac 

*  Between  the  time  of  Charlemagne  and  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  the  mines 
of  Bohemia,  the  Hartz  and  other  parts  of  Germany,  were  discovered  "  (or  re-discovered) 
"  Others  were  found  before  the  discovery  of  America.  .  .  .  Masses  of 
silver  were  often  met  with  just  beneath  the  surface.  .  .  .  One  such,  long  used 
by  the  Margrave  Albrecht  of  Meissen  as  a  table,  yielded  450  pounds  of  pure  silver. 
.  .  .  Bohemia  was  described  by  the  king  of  the  country,  in  1295,  as  being  suffi- 
ciently productive  of  the  precious  metals  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  world,  The 
Saxon  mines  yielded  an  annual  land  tax  of  100,000  Bohemian  groschen,  while  those  of 
Schneeberg,  on  the  Erzebirge,  produced,  during  the  first  thirty  years  of  their  working, 
an  annual  average  of  10,000  cwt.  of  silver.  Other  mines  as  rich  were  afterwards 
opened  in  the  Tyrol  and  at  Salzburg,"  Yeat's  Hist.  Com.,  18S.  All  these  were  old 
Roman  mines  re-opened.  The  product  of  Schneeberg  was  not  ten  thousand,  but  one 
thousand  quintals  per  annum,  not  $18,000,000  but  $1,800,000  per  annum  for  thirty 
years.  A  far  better  summary  of  mining  during  the  Middle  Ages,  than  that  afforded 
by  Mr.  Yeats,  will  be  found  in  the  "  Museum  Metallicum  "  of  Ulysses  Aldrovandi, 
Bononite,  1648,  folio,  pp.  41-9. 

"  Malte  Brun,  v,  102,  says  that  the  silver  mines  in  the  duchy  of  Nassau,  near  Bran- 
bach  and  Holzappel,  yielded  during  the  i8th  century  about  ;^S,ooo  ($40,000)  per 
annum;  and  that  from  the  evidence  afforded  by  numerous  relics  of  antiquity  ex- 
humed near  the  baths  of  Wiesbaden,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  latter  were  known 
to  the  Romans.  The  writer  may  add  that  he  has  panned  gold  from  the  river  gravel 
near  Wiesbaden,  and  that  from  all  these  evidences  and  others  he  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  Romans  had  several  mining  camps  in  the  vicinity. 


EUROPK    DL'KINC.     THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  I  23 

and  Termanez  in  the  Pyrenees,  Viviers  in  the  Vivarais,  the  mines  of 
Dauphine  at  Hrandes,  near  Grenoble,  the  silver  mine  d'Ouzals  near 
Toulouse,  the  cupreous  silver  mines  of  the  Seigneur  Rosselin  de  Foix, 
in  Provence;  and  (in  the  fourteenth  century)  the  silver-lead  mine  of 
Lacroix,  in  Lorraine.  In  Britain,  numerous  silver  and  silver-lead 
mines  were  opened  in  Ccermarthenshire  and  other  provinces.  Most  of 
these  mines  were  of  silver,  a  few  of  electrum,  still  fewer  of  gold,  and 
none  of  copper,  unless  it  formed  the  by-product  of  a  silver  mine.* 

What  had  occurred  to  cause  this  revival  ?  The  Fall  of  the  Sacred 
Empire  in  1204.  This  event  loosed  the  venerable  but  feeble  grasp 
of  the  Basileus  upon  the  prerogatives  with  which  Ctesarhad  invested 
his  office,  including  those  of  mining,  coinage,  and  the  ratio  of  value 
between  silver  and  gold.  With  the  fall  of  the  sacred  ratio  of  12  for  i 
the  independent  kings  raised  the  gold  value  of  their  silver  coins  and 
thus  encouraged  numerous  silver  mines  to  be  opened  or  re-opened, 
which  previously,  and  at  the  sacred  ratio  of  12  for  i,  did  not  pay  to 
work. 

The  conquest  of  the  pagan  Saxons  and  extermination  and  despoil- 
ment of  the  pagan  Avars  by  Charlemagne  in  the  eighth  century,  the 
crusades  against  the  Saracens  of  Spain  and  Portugal  in  the  12th  to 
the  15th  centuries,  and  the  repeated  despoilment  of  the  Lombards 
and  Jews,  who  were  the  intermediaries  everywhere  between  the 
Romans  and  the  pagans,  and  had  grown  rich  not  so  much  upon 
usur\*,  which  was  the  charge  against  them,  as  upon  the  profits  of 
legitimate  commerce;  these  were  also  among  the  sources  of  the 
precious  metals  which  found  their  way  into  the  mints  of  the  medieval 
princes." 

Besides  the  more  important  and  permanent  sources  of  supply  al- 
ready mentioned,  the  auriferous  streams  of  Europe  probably  fur- 
nished in  all  ages  a  small  but  steady  supply  of  gold,  as,  indeed,  some 
of  them  do  still,  for  we  have  ourselves  seen  gold-washing  conducted 
on  the  Tiber  in  Italy,  the  Darro.  Douro,  Sil,  Minho,  and  other  rivers 
in  Spain,  and  the  Elbe  and  the  Rhine  in  Germany.  Besides  these 
rivers,  there  were  the  Danube,  Rhone,  Guadakjuiver,  Tagus  and 
Garonne,  all  of  which  were  worked  during  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  banks  of  the  Tagus  in  Portugal  contain  three  classes  of  auri- 
ferous sand:  i,  cascalhao,  or  gravel  beneath  the  water;  2,  medao, 
or  sand  bank  above  the  water;  and  3,  malhada,  or  furrow  sand 
washed  on  top  of  the  valley  soil,  beyond  the   medao.      The  Tagus 

*  ?'or  other  mines  of  the  ^tiddle  .Ages,  see  Aldrovaniii  cited  in  a  previous  note. 

*  For  plunder  of  the  Lombards  and  Jews  by  Edward  III.,  in  1336,  see  Jacob. 


124  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

sands  were  washed  by  the  Romans  down  to  the  Augustan  period,  and 
probably  until  the  conquest  of  the  peninsular  by  the  Goths,  who, 
being  in  some  measure  governed  by  Buddhic  or  Bacchic  tradition, 
seem  to  have  refrained  from  searching  for  the  precious  metals. 
After  the  Moslem  Conquest,  the  Tagus  was  worked  by  the  Saracens 
down  to  A.  D.  1147,  and  after  that  by  the  Portuguese  down  to  A.  D. 
1550.  It  is  during  the  period  last  mentioned  that  we  have  any  quan- 
titative record  of  the  product.  In  these  four  centuries  the  Tagus' 
sands  yielded  about  ^^378, 000,  or  less  than  a  thousand  pounds  ster- 
ling ($5,000)  per  annum,  of  which  the  King  of  Portugal  received 
one-half  as  royalty,  besides  charging  the  miners  for  licences  and  com- 
pelling them  to  sell  their  gold  bullion  to  the  Royal  Mint  at  less  than 
its  legal  or  mint  valuation  in  coins." 

The  influx  of  the  precious  metals  from  America  and  the  Orient, 
which  occurred  during  the  i6th  century,  the  rise  of  prices  and  wages 
which  followed,  and  the  demand  for  miners  in  the  newly-found  coun- 
tries, put  a  stop  to  the  humble  efforts  of  the  Tagus  artilleseros ; 
nevertheless,  these  sands  were  again  worked  from  1S14  to  1833. 
During  this  period  (less  than  sixteen  years  of  actual  work),  the  ag- 
gregate product  was  46,270,  expenses  43, 142,  and  profit  3,128  milreis. 
The  number  of  men  employed  was  about  twenty;  the  product  of  each 
man  was  about  2s.  6d.,  or  62  cents;  the  expenses,  royalty,  licenses, 
etc. ,  2S.  4d. ,  or  58  cents,  and  the  profit  2d. ,  or  four  cents,  per  diem. " 

The  sands  of  the  Rhine,  chiefly  between  Strasbourg  and  Phillips- 
burg,  were  worked  for  gold  during  the  Middle  Ages.  At  one  time  the 
magistrates  of  Strasbourg  farmed  out  the  right  to  work  them.  Bv 
the  year  17 18  the  washings  had  become  so  meagre  that  the  share  of 
these  magistrates  was  only  four  or  five  ounces  per  annum.  In  1846 
the  annual  yield  was  estimated  at  36  pounds  troy.  The  washers 
usually  made  from  is.  3d.  to  is.  8d.  (30  to  40  cents)  a  day.  Occasion- 
ally the  profits  rose  to  several  times  these  sums. 

The  Moslem  mines  of  the  Middle  Ages  have  been  so  fully  described 
in  the  author's  previous  works'^  that  nothing  needs  to  be  added  in 
this  place  except   the  details  which   have  rewarded  his  researches 

^^  For  plunder  of  the  Byzantine  temples  in  France,  by  Charles  Martel,  about  730, 
see  Raynal,  11,  292;  for  plunder  of  the  Lombards  and  Jews,  by  Edward  III.,  in 
1336,  see  Jacob,  p.  179;  and  for  numerous  despoilments  of  the  Jews  during  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  consult  Madox's  "  History  of  the  Exchequer." 

"  Report  of  the  United  .States  Monetary  Commission,  of  1876,  i,  457. 

''^  Del  Mar's  History  of  the  Precious  Metals,  ed.  1S80,  p.  41;  History  of  Money  in 
Ancient  States,  ed.  1SS5,  p.  133;  Money  and  Civilization,  ed.  18S6,  p.  iS;  and  His- 
tory of  Monetary  Systems,  ed.  1901,  p.  125. 


EUKOl'K    DLklNCi    THK.    MIDDLE    ACIES.  I25 

since  those  works  were  written.  Lady  Callcott  gives  a  date  to  the 
working  of  the  mines  of  Jaen.  Bulache  and  Oroche,  etc.,  by  the  Mos- 
lems. This  is  A.  D.  976;  but  she  omits  to  state  whether  this  was 
the  earliest  working  of  those  mines  or  not.  The  gifted  authoress 
also  asserts  that  the  Moslem  gold  mines,  in  Spain,  were  worked  for 
the  account  of  private  inilividuals  and  not  for  that  of  the  State  or 
the  Crown  " 

Among  the  mines  of  Spain  opened  by  the  Moslems,  Al-Makkari 
mentions  the  gold  washings  of  the  Lerida,  an  affluent  of  the  Ebro; 
a  very  rich  silver  mine  near  Santiago,  the  capital  of  Gallicia;  one  at 
Tadmir,  another  in  the  mountains  of  Al-hamah  (La  Seca) ;  besides 
gold  mines  in  Cordova,  Andalusia,  and  other  provinces;  and  quick- 
silver (cinnabar)  and  tin  mines  both  in  Spain  and  Portugal.'*  We 
are  also  informed  that  the  Moslems  opened  or  re-opened  numerous 
mines  in  Mauritania  and  interior  Africa,  in  Sardinia,  in  Egypt  and 
down  the  East  Coast  of  Africa  as  far  as  Sofala,  as  well  as  in  the 
Hedjaz,  Syria  and  Armenia. 

In  A.  D.  933  tlie  Arabians,  from  the  Hedjaz  and  from  Muscat, 
which  latter  place  Anderson  includes  under  the  general  name  of 
'•  Persia,"  re-opened  the  mines  of  south-eastern  Africa  down  to  the 
Mozambique,  or  else  renewed  the  trade  for  gold  upon  such  terms  or 
under  such  conditions  that  to  this  period  is  ascribed  the  buikiingof 
Brava,  Mombaza,  Quiloa,  Mozambicpie,  Magado.xa,  Sofala,  and  other 
Arabian  towns  on  the  African  main  and  in  Madagascar,  as  emporia 
for  the  prosecution  of  the  gold  trade.  The  introduction  of  mercury 
for  amalgamation,  or  of  some  other  improved  process  for  obtaining 
or  treatmg  gold  ores,  may  have  furnished  the  immediate  stimulus- 
for  this  revival;  but  it  is  mediately  due  to  the  Moslem  Concpiest  of 
India  during  the  tenth  century.  This  encouragetl  the  erection  not 
only  of  the  emporia  mentioned,  but  also  of  otiicrs  not  immediately 
connected  with  the  gold  trade:  those  which  stretched  from  the  Red 
Sea  to  Cape  Comorin,  the  southernmost  jioint  of  India.  When  the 
Portuguese  doubled  the  Cape  of  (iood  Hope  in  the  15th  century, 
they  found  the  Arabs  in  full  possession  of  a  systematic  and  prosper- 
ous commerce,  which  extended  in  an  unbroken  line  from  the  Mozam- 
bique Channel  by  way  of  Zanzibar,  Muscat,  Laristan,  and  Bcluchistan 
to  the  Indies.'* 

If  we  examine  the  dates  when   the  oldest  existing  cathedrals  and 
churchts  of  Europe  were  erected   it   will  be  found  that  but  few  of 

"  Callcott.  Historj-  of  Spain,  i,  249.  '*  .\I-M.ikkari.  i.  89-90. 

"  Anderson's  Hist,  of  Commcrcf,  i,  92. 


126  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

them  are  earlier  than  the  13th  or  later  than  the  15th  century.  St. 
Denis,  St,  Germain  L'Auxerrois,  St.  Genevieve,  St.  Martin  des 
Champs,  St.  Julien  le  Pauvre,  St.  Pierre-aux-Boeufs,  St.  Antoine  des 
Quinze-Vingts,  La  Sainte  Chapelle  and  the  foundation  of  La  Sor- 
bonne,  of  Paris,  are  all  of  the  13th  century;  Westminster  Abbey  and 
Salisbury  Cathedral  were  founded  in  1220;  the  Cathedral  of  Cologne 
1248;  of  Worcester,  1281;  of  York,  1291;  of  Canterbury,  1378;  of 
Milan,  1386;  of  St.  Peters  at  Rome,  1450.  Whence  came  the  vast 
sums  of  Money  represented  by  these  structures  of  a  period  when 
money  was  so  scarce  that  two  pence  purchased  a  day's  labor,  and 
three  pence  a  bushel  of  wheat  ?  There  can  be  but  one  answer  to 
this  question:  they  were  built  from  the  metallic  spoil  of  the  Eastern 
Empire,  which  fell  in  1204,  and  of  the  Arabian  Empire,  in  Spain, 
which  succumbed  to  a  series  of  conquests  that  began  in  1095  and 
ended  with  its  downfall  in  1492.  In  the  author's  "Middle  Ages 
Revisited,"  chapter  xii,  he  has  described  the  plunder  of  the  Eastern 
Empire;  in  the  present  work  he  will  endeavor  to  trace  that  of  Arabian 
Spain. 

The  Moslem  Empire  in  Spain  was  to  the  medieval  world  what  Rome 
had  been  to  the  ancient:  the  seat  of  learning,  the  home  of  science 
and  the  arts,  the  emporium  of  riches.  In  a  previous  work  on  Money, 
the  populousness,  brilliancy  and  opulence  of  Moorish  Spain  was  de- 
scribed at  some  length,  and  that  such  an  Empire  should  have  fallen 
beneath  the  arms  of  the  petty  state  of  Castile  is  only  explicable  when 
we  discover:  Firstly,  that  among  the  Moslems  there  existed  in- 
ternal sources  of  decay,  and  Secondly,  that  Castile  was  a  mere 
euphemism  for  all  Christendom. 

One  of  the  sources  of  the  decay  of  Moslem  Spain  is  adverted  to 
in  the  following  passage: — "When  the  mines  ceased  to  pay — an 
event  that  came  about  much  sooner  with  the  Saracens  than  with  the 
Romans,  because  the  former  were  forbidden  by  their  religion  to  en- 
slave any  but  infidels — the  supplies  of  the  precious  metals  diminished, 
the  level  of  prices  began  to  fall,  commerce  became  depressed,  in- 
dustry gradually  ceased,  numbers  of  people  were  thrown  out  of  em- 
ployment and  reduced  to  beggary,  the  rich  became  relatively  richer, 
the  poor  relatively  poorer,  the  central  government  lost  authority, 
and  hundreds  of  wealthy  proprietors,  rendered  arrogant  by  their 
wealth,  claimed  political  privileges  which  formerly  it  would  have  cost 
them  their  lives  to  assert.  The  powers  of  the  Moslem  government 
fell  into  the  hands  of  jealous  nobles  and  hostile  sheiks,  and,  in  this 
■condition,  it  became  an  easy  prey  to  the  enemy."  '* 

'*  Money  and  Civilization,  83. 


K.lKUl'K     DlklNi;      rilK     MlDDl.l-.     Ai.KS.  12/ 

The  generic  source  of  decay  was  the  Mahometan  religion.  Unlike 
Christianity,  which  adapts  itself  to  all  countries  and  conditions  of 
men,  and  is  not  for  a  day  but  for  all  time,  Islamism  is  suitable  only 
to  certain  countries  and  social  conditions;  thus,  while  it  may  continue 
for  ages  to  remain  the  religion  of  a  race,  it  must  sooner  or  later 
cease  to  be  that  of  a  nation.  The  Koran  permits  no  new  laws  to  be 
passed,  and  where  it  prevails,  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  represen- 
tative government,  or  a  legislature.  Therefore,  when  the  growth 
of  a  Mahometan  nation  attains  that  phase  of  maturity  which  demands 
the  substitution  of  constitutional  or  representative,  for  despotic 
government,  either  the  Koran  must  be  thrown  overboard  or  the  Mos- 
lem ship  of  State  must  take  in  sail  and  drop  astern,  motionless  and 
inactive;  while  the  rest  of  the  world,  with  eager  wings,  races  on  to 
discovery,  riches  and  power.      Such  was  the  case  with  Moslem  Spain. 

If  to  these  internal  sources  of  decay,  of  themselves  sufficient  in 
time  to  ruin  any  Empire,  there  is  added  the  combined  hostility  of  the 
entire  Christian  world,  nothing  loth  at  any  time  to  taste  the  spoil  of 
the  lieathen,  but  rendered  especially  eager  for  spoil  during  the  Middle 
Ages  by  its  own  internecine  struggles  and  the  general  backwardness 
of  industry,  there  is  little  necessity  to  look  further  for  the  causes 
that  led  to  the  downfall  of  Moslem  Spain. 

The  first  attack  upon  the  Moslems  in  Spain  was  made  by  Charle- 
magne. His  acquisition  of  the  Spanish  March,  though  it  severed 
but  little  territory  from  the  Moslems  and  added  but  little  riches  to 
Christendom,  yet  it  afforded  a  basis  for  the  military  operations  of 
subsequent  invaders.  His  son,  Louis  le  Debonnaire  (814-17),  lent 
great  assistance  to  the  Christians  of  Spain  by  granting  them  lands  in 
France.'^  About  875,  Alfonso  III.,  King  of  Asturias  and  Leon,  mar- 
ried Amelina,  cousin  to  the  King  of  France,  and  niece  of  Sancho, 
King  of  Navarre,  thus  forming  a  French  alliance. 

The  footing  obtained  through  the  conquest  of  Charlemagne,  the 
assistance  of  Louis,  and  the  avidity  of  those  bands  of  Free  Lances, 
or  mercenaries,  who  at  this  period  wandered  through  Western  Eu- 
rope in  quest  of  employment  and  plunder,  had  much  to  do  with  the 
foundation  of  the  petty  monarchies  of  Northern  Spain."  Through 
inter-marriages,  they  became  gradually  merged  into  one  or  two  prin- 
cipal kingdoms;  and,  being  continually  assisted  by  the  Christian 
monarchs  of  France   and   other  countries,    they  at  length  secured 

'^  Robertson's  Charles  V.,  i.  215. 

'*  "Spain  was  aided  by  volunteers  from  all  western  Christendom.'  Freeman,  Hist. 
Saracens,  142. 


128  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

important  conquests  from  the  Moslems.  Such  was  the  nature  of  the 
acquisitions  made  by  Ferdinand  I.  of  Castile  and  his  Christian  allies 
from  France  and  Italy;  and  from  this  ^era  (eleventh  century)  is  to  be 
dated  the  first  serious  step  in  the  decline  of  the  Moslem  power  in 
Spain.  The  operations  of  Ferdinand  and  his  allies  had  been  greatly 
assisted  by  the  Normans,  who,  in  the  early  part  of  this  century 
sacked  many  of  the  maritime  cities  of  the  Peninsular,  the  island  of 
Sicily  and  other  Moslem  possessions,  and  who,  with  the  spoil  thus 
obtained,  enriched  those  nobles,  their  masters,  who  were  soon  also 
to  become  the  masters  of  anarchical  England. 

In  1085,  the  Christian  allies  had  pushed  their  conquests  to  the 
province  of  Toledo,  the  capital  of  which  yielded  in  that  year  to  the 
strategy  of  Alonzo.  It  at  once  became  the  capital  of  Christian 
Spain.  The  general  policy  of  the  victors  was  never  to  keep  faith 
with  Moors  or  Jews;  to  extort  confessions  from  them  of  hidden 
treasures  by  means  of  torture,  and  to  exile  them  from  the  conquered 
lands  and  fill  their  places  with  Christains  from  France  and  other 
states.  The  burning  alive  and  hewing  in  pieces  of  Moorish  and 
Jewish  prisoners  was  begun  by  the  heroic  Cid  Campeador,  while  the 
wholesale  deportation  of  these  people  was  carried  out  by  the  valiant 
Alonzo  I.  of  Aragon.  The  Cid  was  brought  up  by  his  godfather,  a 
priest  of  Burgos,  in  the  belief  that  with  Jews  and  infidels  there  was 
no  faith  to  be  kept.  His  conduct  to  them  was  both  cruel  and  per- 
fidious; and  while  he  is  said  never  to  have  failed  in  his  word  to  a 
Christian,  he  raised  money  from  the  Jews,  pretending  to  have,  in 
pawn,  chests  full  of  plate,  to  be  opened  a  year  after  they  were  de- 
livered; while  the  boxes,  in  fact,  contained  nothing  but  stones  and 
sand.  For  his  mercy  and  tenderness  to  Christians,  he  made  up  by 
the  burnings  alive  and  hewings  in  pieces  of  the  Moors,  to  extort  con- 
fessions of  hidden  treasures." 

This  was  in  strange  contrast  with  the  conduct  of  the  Moors  to- 
ward the  Gothic  princes  from  whom  they  conquered  Spain  nearly 
four  hundred  years  previously.  The  following  is  the  text  of  one  of 
the  treaties  made  on  that  occasion  : 

"Treaty  of  peace  between  Abdul  Asis  ben  Muza  ben  Noseir  and 
Theodomir,*"  Gothic  King  of  the  Land  of  Tadmir:^'   In  the  name  of 

"  Callcott,  I,  292. 

'■"*  Theo==god  and  Mir=the  Sea,  or  God-of-the-Sea,  suggesting  the  sacerdotal  Budd- 
hictitleof  a  Prince  of  Mingrelia  and  the  custom  of  Marrying  the  Sea,  mentioned  in  the 
author's  "  Worship  of  Augustus  Cresar,"  93,  219.  Tad,  or  Tat,  is  also  a  Buddhic 
or  Bacchic  sacerdotal  name.  An  ancient  image  of  Bacchus  as  a  sea  god,  bearing  a 
trident,  has  recently  been  exhumed  in  France,  and  is  depicted  in  the  Chicago  "  Open 
Court  "  for  December,  1900. 

'■"  The  Land  of  Tadmir  included  IMurcia  and  Carthagena. 


EUROPE    DURINC,      IHK    MIDDI.K    AOES. 


129 


the  most  merciful  (iod:  Abdul  Asis  and  Tadmir  (Theodomir)  make 
this  covenant  of  peace,  which  may  God  confirm  and  protect;  that 
Theodomir  and  no  other  shall  have  thecc^mmand  of  his  principality  ; 
that  there  shall  not  be  war  between  them,  nor  shall  they  take  captive 
each  other's  wives  or  children  ;  that  they  shall  not  be  molested  in 
their  religion,  nor  shall  their  temples  be  destroyed,  nor  shall  other 
services  or  obligations  be  imposed,  beyond  those  herein  contained. 
That  this  covenant  shall  likewise  extend  to  the  seven  towns  of 
Orihuela,  Valentola,  Alicant,  Mala,  Bosara,  Ota  and  Lorca;  that  he 
shall  not  receive  our  enemies,  nor  fail  in  his  fidelity,  nor  conceal  any 
hostile  design  which  he  may  learn;  that  he  and  each  of  his  nobles 
shall  pay  every  year  one  piece  of  gold  (dinar),  besides  four  measures 
each  of  wheat,  barley,  wine,  vinegar,  honey  and  oil;  and  that  the 
vassals  shall  pay  one-half  of  the  like  tax.  Written  on  the  4th  of 
Regib,  in  the  year  of  the  Hegira  ninety-four  (equivalent  to  our 
A.  D.  712).  Witnesses:  Othman  ben  Abi  Abda;  Nabib  ben  Abi 
Obeida;  Edris  ben  Maicera;  Abulcasim  el  Mezeli." 

In  1095,  the  Pope  of  Rome  authorized  the  first  general  crusade, 
and  in  1136  a  special  crusade  against  the  Moors  and  Jews  of  Spain, 
and  he  incited  or  authorized  the  Genoese  to  begin  the  attack.  This 
crusade  resulted  in  the  conquest  of  Almeria  with  great  booty,  part 
of  which  was  reserved  and  awarded  to  the  Holy  Father.  In  1173, 
the  Genoese  assisted  in  the  siege  of  Tortosa  and  shared  its  spoil 
with  the  King  of  Castile  and  the  Count  of  Barcelona.  In  1139,  the 
Emperor  Conrad  III.  sent  a  fleet  of  German  (Bremen),  ?>ench  and 
English  ships,  apparently  to  Palestine,  but  really  to  Portugal,  to  as- 
sist Alfonso  in  the  capture  of  Lisbon  from  the  Moors.  When  they 
had  effected  this  object  the  allies  defeated  the  Moslems  on  the  plain 
of  Ourique,  and  thus  established  the  Christian  kingdom  of  Portugal. 
After  extirpating  or  banishing  all  the  Moors,  the  country  was  pop- 
ulated by  planting  numerous  colonies  of  Christians.  The  execution 
of  these  measures  gained  for  Sancho  I.  (11 85-1 2 12),  the  surname  of 
Poplador,  or  populator." 

"Their  various  connections  with  foreign  nations  and  the  gradual 
increase  of  their  dominions,  encouraged  the  ciiristain  kings  of  Spain 
to  form  more  decided  plans  than  they  had  hitherto  done  for  the  final 
reduction  of  the  Moors.  Accordingly,  at  a  conference  held  for  that 
purpose  in  1 1  79,  they  laid  out  the  whole  of  the  Moorish  territc^ry  into 
partitions  (spheres  of  influence),  and  to  each  of  the  christian  kings 
one  of  these  partitions  was  to  belong;  and  although  another  should 

"  Callcott.  I.  339,  372. 


130  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

make  war  and  overcome  the  Moors  within  its  limits,  still  the  con- 
quest should  belong  to  the  king  to  whom  the  portion  was  originally 
assigned."  " 

About  1 185,  the  kings  of  Navarre  and  Castile  agreed  to  refer  a 
dispute,  concerning  their  conquests  from  the  Moors,  to  Henry  II.  of 
England,  the  father-in-law  of  the  latter.  The  ambassadors  and  their 
retinues  found  Henry  at  Windsor,  and  there  the  dispute  was  settled 
to  the  satisfaction  of  both  parties."  At  another  time  Henry  con- 
vened a  plenary  court  at  Beaucaire,  on  the  Rhone,  to  setttle  a  dis- 
pute between  the  King  of  Aragon,  as  Count  of  Provence,  and  the 
Count  of  Toulouse.  On  this  occasion,  and  in  order  to  exhibit  their 
opulence,  100,000  silver  pennies,  paid  by  the  Count  of  Toulouse, 
were  distributed  among  20,000  Free  Lances;  the  Baron  Bertram 
Raimbant  sowed  the  land  around  the  castle  of  Beaucaire  with  120,000 
silver  farthings;  William  de  Martel,  who  had  300  knights  in  his 
train,  caused  their  meat  to  be  cooked  over  wax  tapers;  the  Countess 
of  Magel  presented  a  crown  of  immense  value  to  the  assembly;  and 
Raymond  de  Rons  proved  his  Gothic  lineage  by  sacrificing  to  the 
flames,  and  before  the  whole  court,  thirty  valuable  horses." 

Between  11 84  and  12 12  the  Pope  of  Rome  instigated  several 
crusades  against  the  Spanish  Moors.  Bands  of  adventurers  and 
Free  Lances  from  Italy,  France,  and  even  England,  poured  into 
Spain  and  Portugal,  and  together  they  defeated  Mohamed  Abu  Ab- 
dallah  at  Tolosa  in  121 2,  killed  100,000  Moors,  took  60,000  prisoners, 
whom  they  reduced  to  slavery,  and  thus  virtually  crushed  and  ter- 
minated the  Almohade  dynasty. 

In  1 21 7  the  christians  gained  Cordova.  In  1229  James  I.,  of  Ara- 
gon, assisted  by  forces  from  Genoa,  Marseilles  and  Provence,  took 
Majorca  from  the  Moors.  Marseilles  (then  a  republic)  had  for  its 
share  of  the  spoil  300  houses  in  the  capital  of  Majorca,  besides  other 
houses  and  lands  in  other  parts  of  that  then  rich  island.  In  1231 
the  Genoese  took  Ceuta  from  the  Moors.  In  1237  the  military  forces 
of  James  I.  of  Aragon  were  greatly  strengthened  by  a  band  of  chosen 
men-at-arms  from  France,  under  the  Bishop  of  Narbonne,  and  by 
numerous  English  knights  and  men-at-arms.  Together,  these  war- 
riors and  mercenaries  carried  the  crusade  into  Valencia.  This  cam- 
paign began  with  an  act  of  treachery  to  Seid,  the  Moorish  chieftain, 
and  ended  with  the  sack  of  Valencia  and  the  banishment  of  the  en- 
tire population.  In  1240,  when  Murcia  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
crusaders,  a  similar  policy  was  carried  out:  despoilment  and  exile. 

'3  Callcott,  I,  362.  "  Callcott,  I,  365.  "  Callcott  i,  388. 


EUROl'K    DURING    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  I3I 

In  1275  Edward  I..  Kinjj;  of  England,  assisted  Alfonso  of  Castile 
(his  brother-in-law)  in  his  military  operations  against  the  Moors. 
Alfonso  X.,  of  Castile,  1252-S4,  was  assisted  by  Louis  IX.  and  Philip 
III.,  of  France,  to  whom  the  former  was  related.  Peter  the  Cruel  of 
Castile,  1350-69,  was  assisted  by  both  of  these  princes  in  his  dynastic 
and  Moorish  wars,  and  by  those  companies  of  adventure,  who,  after 
the  pacification  between  France  anil  England,  had  lost  the  occupa- 
tion of  war  and  retained  only  that  of  plunder.  Finally,  Henry  III., 
of  Castile.  1391-1406,  was  assisted  by  Charles  III.,  of  Navarra,  to 
defend  christianized  Murcia  against  the  Moors  of  Grenada. 

Thus,  province  by  province,  nearly  the  whole  of  that  magnificent 
empire  which  the  Moslems  had  concjuered  from  the  Coths,  and  en- 
riched with  seven  centuries  of  agriculture  anil  mechanical  industry, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  christians.  The  spoil  was  immense;  and 
it  was  this  spoil  that,  upon  being  distributed  among  the  various 
christian  states  of  Northern  and  Western  Europe,  laiil  the  founda- 
tions of  their  prosperity.  Following  the  spoil  came  the  kinds,  im- 
provements, manufactures,  commerce  and  scientific  acquirements  of 
the  Saracens,  all  of  which  fell  to  the  conquerers.  The  Moors  were 
banished  or  reduced  to  slavery  and  conqjelled  to  till  the  lands,  or 
practice  the  trades,  or  prosecute  the  commerce,  which  was  once  their 
own,  but  no^v  went  to  enrich  the  hated  Romans."  A  Jew,  whom 
Alfonso  XI.,  of  Castile,  1312-50,  had  appointed  to  collect  tribute 
from  the  inhabitants  of  a  province  of  Spain  which  he  had  wrested 
from  the  Moors,  told  Ibn-Kaldun  that  he  had  collected  no  less  than 
65  komt  (cuentos),  each  komt  being  five  kintars  (or  hundred  weights) 
of  gold:  that  is  to  say,  nearly  200  (325?)  kintars  of  gold  from  his 
unhappy  compatriots." 

Some  of  the  various  agencies  through  which  a  share  of  the  plunder 
of  Spain  reached  England  have  already  been  indicated.  These  were 
chiefly  the  Norman  maritime  raids  of  the  eleventh  and  the  crusades 
of  the  twelfth  century.  Both  of  these  were  against  Moorish  Spain. 
The  Jews,  banished  from  Spain,  also  flocked  to  England  under  the 
Normans.  A  number  of  Jewish  names,  such  as  Hen  (?),  Jose,  Sancto, 
Santon,  Vives,  etc.,  will  be  found  in  the  Norman  exchequer  rolls. 
cited  by  Madox.  Never  had  England  been  so  rich  as  when  she  was 
flooded  with  the  golden  mancusses  brought  in  by  these  refugees 
during  the  reign  of  Henry  III.    Some  instances  of  the  comparatively 

**  To  this  day  the  Moors  regard  all  christians  as  Romans.  A  passport  recently 
praiitcd  by  the  sheriff  of  a  town  in  Moroccf),  to  an  .\nicrican  traveller,  described  the 
latter  as  a  "  Roman."  "  Al-Makkari,  402«. 


132  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

large  sums  of  gold  and  silver  found  at  this  period  in  the  castles  of 
English  prelates  and  barons  are  given  in  the  author's  "History  of 
Monetary  Systems."  Other  and  larger  sums  were  sent  from  Eng- 
land to  Rome,  either  as  Peter's  Pence  or  to  pay  for  special  privileges 
or  indulgences;  and  still  others  to  defray  the  expenses  of  further 
crusades. 

A  few  examples  of  Moslem  opulence  will  serve  to  convey  an  es- 
timate of  the  wealth  gained  by  Christendom  from  the  despoilment  of 
the  Moors.  During  the  reign  of  Abdurahman,  Caliph  of  Cordova, 
912-61,  Abdul  Melik  ben  Said  was  appointed  privy  councillor,  upon 
which  he  sent  the  following  presents  to  the  Caliph:  400  pounds 
weight  of  pure  gold  of  Tibar,  silver  in  bars  to  the  value  of  420,000 
sequins  (the  sequin  or  dinar  contained  about  the  same  quantity  of 
gold  as  I2S.  or  $3  of  the  present  day),  400  pounds  of  lign-aloes,  500 
ounces  of  amber,  300  ounces  of  precious  camphor,  30  pieces  of  silk 
and  gold  interwoven ;  no  fine  ermine  cloaks  from  Khorrassan,  48 
horse  caparisons  of  silk  and  gold  woven  at  Bagdad,  400  pounds  of 
spun  silk,  30  Persian  carpets,  800  horse  champrons  of  burnished 
steel,  1,000  shields,  100,000  arrows,  15  thoroughbred  Arab  horses 
with  gold  embroidered  housings,  100  Spanish  and  African  horses, 
well  clothed;  20  sumpter  mules  with  pack  saddles  and  curtains,  and 
40  male  and  20  female  slaves,  well  matched. ^^  Towards  the  end  of 
his  reign,  Alkahem  II.,  961-76,  ordered  a  cadastre  and  census  of 
his  caliphate.  The  returns  showed  that  it  contained  six  large  cities, 
the  capitals  of  provinces;  80  cities  exceedingly  populous,  300  of  the 
third  class,  and  villages,  hamlets,  villas  and  farms  innumerable.  The 
valley  of  the  Guadalquiver  alone  contained  12,000  farms.  Cordova 
had  200,000  houses,  600  mosques,  50  hospitals,  80  public  schools, 
and  90  public  baths.  The  yearly  revenues  of  the  state  were  12 
million  mithcalsof  gold  (weighing  about  los.  each),  besides  the  taxes 
paid  in  kind.  The  gold  mines  belonging  to  the  king,  or  to  private 
persons,  produced  great  sums.  Those  of  Jaen,  Bulache,  Arocheand 
of  the  mountains  near  the  Tagus,  in  the  west  of  Spain,  were  very 
productive.  Rubies  were  found  at  Beja  and  Malaga,  coral  was  fished 
on  the  coasts  of  Andalusia,  pearls  were  found  on  those  of  Tarragona, 
reservoirs  and  irrigating  canals  were  built  in  Granada,  Murcia, 
Valencia  and  Aragon,  and  the  most  illustrious  knights  devoted  their 
leisure  to  tillage  and  horticulture."  In  the  twelfth  century  the 
pulpit  and  pew  of  Abdelmumen  were  constructed  of  aromatic  wood, 
sculptured  in  scrolls  and  flowers;  the  clasps  and  hinges  were  of  solid 

'•'^  Callcott,  I,  241.  ^^  Callcott,  i,  249. 


EUROPE    DURING    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  1 33 

gold;  tlie  coffins  of  the  distinguished  dead  were  wrought  of  cyprus 
wooti  and  adorned  with  gold;  while  in  tiie  fourteenth  century  (battle 
of  Guadelcito)  the  ciuantity  of  gold  and  silver  captured  by  the 
christians  from  MuUy  Hassan  was  so  vast  that  its  coinage  and  dis- 
tribution caused  a  general  rise  of  prices  in  christain  Spain. ■'" 

The  Abbe  Raynal  (in,  246)  says  that  the  kingdom  of  Cordova, 
previous  to  its  conquest  in  January,  1492,  was  for  its  size  the  richest 
in  Europe.  It  contained  no  less  than  three  million  industrious  in- 
habitants. Nowhere  else  throughout  the  civilized  world  were  the 
lands  so  well  cultivated;  manufactures  so  varied,  numerous  and  im- 
proved ;  nor  navigation  and  commerce  so  extensive,  regular  and  profit- 
able. The  public  revenues  in  money  alone  amounted  to  a  sum  equal 
to  three  million  livres  of  the  writer's  time,  which  his  translator  con- 
verts into  the  equivalent  of  ^292,000  sterling;  "  a  prodigious  sum  at 
a  time  when  gold  and  silver,  compared  with  now,  were  exceedingly 
scarce." 

Besides  the  revenues  of  the  Caliphate,  there  were  local  revenues 
■which  probably  amounted  to  even  a  larger  sum.  In  every  house  there 
was  some  token  of  opulence,  some  service  of  plate,  some  article  of 
jewelry,  some  precious  memento.  The  bodies  of  the  dead  were 
adorned  with  gold  and  jewels.  All  this  wealth  became  the  spoil  of 
the  christian  conquest.  Even  the  graves  were  violated  in  search  of 
gold. 

The  manner  in  which  the  Empire  of  China  is  being  invaded,  par- 
celled out  into  "  spheres  of  influence,"  and  plundered  by  christian 
troops  at  the  present  day,  is  not  so  very  unlike  the  invasion  and  de- 
spoilment of  Moslem  Spain  during  the  Middle  Ages  as  to  save  from 
a  blush  of  shame  the  professed  worshippers  of  a  benignant  and 
merciful  (iod.  The  future  boast  of  the  christian  nations  will  not  be 
which  one  conquered  the  most  of  China,  but  which  one  robbed  her 
the  least. 

"  Callcott.  I,  323-5;  II,  31. 


134  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


THE  AMALGAMATION   PROCESS. 

It  is  a  common  belief,  one  which  will  be  found  in  most  works  of  reference,  that  the  employment  of 
mercury  for  the  purpose  of  catching,  saving,  or  recovering  the  precious  metals,  called  the  Amalgama- 
tion Process,  was  invented  by  one  Medina,  in  1557.  This  belief  is  erroneous.  The  fact  that  mercurj', 
when  it  touches  gold  or  silver,  instantly  combines  with  it,  and  in  case  the  latter  is  in  the  form  of 
powder  or  grains,  forms  a  compound  which  we  call  amalgam,  was  known  and  utilized  in  the  most 
ancient  times.  These  circumstances  are  attested  by  the  evidence  adduced  on  page  8  of  the  present 
work;  but  we  shall  presently  bring  forward  other  evidences.  Meanwhile,  it  is  necessary  to  observe 
that  there  is  another,  a  complicated  metallurgical  process,  called  by  English  writers  "amalgamation," 
but  known  to  Spaniards  as  the  "patio  process,"  patio  referring  to  the  court  or  yard  in  which  the  pro- 
cess is  carried  on.  In  the  patio  process  the  pulverized  ores  of  silver,  after  being  spread  over  the  court, 
receive  a  charge  of  mercury,  common  salt,  copper  pyrites  and  water  ;  the  combination  being  called 
"  magistral."  The  mi.xture  results  in  converting  the  argentiferous  portion  of  the  ore  into  metallic 
silver  and  rejecting  the  worthless  remainder. 

While  there  isaothmg  to  show  that  the  ancients  were  aware  of  this  process,  there  is  abundant  reason 
to  believe  that  simple  amalgamation  was  quite  familiar  to  them.  At  the  present  day  the  natives  em- 
ploy this  process  in  Assam  (276),  Bhandara  (322),  Dharwar  (318),  Jhilam  (347),  Malabar  (337),  Morada- 
bad  (344),  the  Punjab  (344),  Rawalpindi  (348),  and  other  mining  districts  of  India,  the  numbers  affixed 
to  each  district  indicating  the  pages  of  Lock's  work  on  Gold,  in  which  the  practice  is  mentioned.  It  is 
confidently  believed  that  this. practice  has  continued  since  the  Moslem  conquest  of  the  tenth  century. 
It  may  even  be  of  the  greatest  antiquity. 

Sir  Gardiner  Wilkinson,  A.  E.,  ed.  1878,  11,  2i3n,  says  that  mercury  in  flasks  has  been  discovered  in 
ancient  Egyptian  tombs.  This  metal  was  sacred  to  Hes-Iris,  or  Osiris,  who  was  the  same  as  Buddha, 
Bacchus,  or  Mercury,  whose  name  it  bears.  It  was  probably  used  by  the  Egyptians  for  recovering  the 
precious  metals.  In  the  Greek  silver  mining  districts  of  Lauriura  there  were  deposits  both  of  cinna- 
bar, the  ore  of  mercury  and  copper,  the  former  of  which  were  worked  to  advantage.  Boeckh,  Polit  Econ. 
Ath.  ed.  1857,  p.  416.  These  deposits,  found  in  such  close  conjunction,  could  scarcely  have  failed  to 
suggest  the  "magistral"  of  the  Spaniards.  At  all  events,  it  is  quite  likely  that  the  Greeks  employed 
simple  amalgamation,  for  it  is  treated  familiarly  by  the  Romans.  It  is  distinctly  mentioned  by  Vitruvius 
about  B.  C.  27,  and  described  by  Pliny  the  Elder  about  A.  D.  73.  Says  the  latter,  N.  H.,  xxxiii,  32  : 
"  Gold  is  the  only  substance  that  quicksilver  attracts  to  itself  ;  hence  it  is  that  it  is  such  an  excellent 
refiner  of  gold,  for  on  being  shaken  in  an  earthen  vessel  with  gold  it  rejects  all  dross,  clinging  only  to 
the  gold.  The  dross  being  expelled,  it  simply  remains  to  separate  the  quicksilver  from  the  gold.  This 
is  done  by  enclosing  the  mixture — amalgam — in  a  well-prepared  skin,  which,  being  squeezed,  exudes  the 
quicksilver,  like  a  sort  of  perspiration,  leaving  the  pure  gold  behind."  This  is  precisely  the  process 
employed  by  common  miners  to-day  ;  the  skin  used  being  a  chamois  bag.  Edrisi — 12th  century — informs 
us  that  during  the  eleventh  century,  and  "long  previously"  quicksilver  amalgamation  was  employed 
by  the  Arabian  and  negro  miners  of  Western  Africa,  Abyssinia,  Bodja,  and  Nubia.  Humboldt, 
"  Fluctuations  of  Gold,"  ed.  1900,  p.  27.  Amalgamation  was  employed  by  the  gold  miners  of  Portugal 
during  the  reign  of  King  Diniz,  1279-1325.  Rep.  U.  S.  Monetary  Com.  1876,  i,  458.  It  had  probably 
been  learnt  from  the  Arabs.  In  1525,  "  a  miner,  named  Paolo  Belvio,  was  sent  with  a  provision  of 
quicksilver  to  Hayti,  in  order  to  expedite  the  gold  washings  by  means  of  amalgamation."  Humboldt, 
op.  cit.  it.  Herrera,  in  his  history  of  Spanish-America,  says  that,  although  previous  to  the  opening  of 
Potosi  the  Spaniards  knew  the  art  of  amalgamating  mercury  with  gold,  they  were  unaware  that  mer- 
cury would  amalgamate  with  silver  and  that  then  they  discovered  it  for  the  first  time.  Anderson, 
Hist.  Com.  II,  76.  Herrera  must  have  borrowed  his  metallurgy  from  Pliny.  It  is  practically  impossible 
to  know  that  mercury  will  amalgamate  with  gold  and  yet  not  know  that  it  will  also  amalgamate  with 
silver,  because  in  subterranean  mines  both  metals  are  commonly  found  in  the  same  matrix.  Even  in 
alluvial  or  placer  gold  there  is  often  a  small  proportion  of  silver.  That  mercury  amalgamates  with  both 
metals  must  therefore  be  a  fact  familiar  to  every  one  who  has  used  it.  What  Herrera  should  have  said 
was,  that  previous  to  the  opening  of  the  Mexican  silver  mines  by  the  Spaniards  they  were  familiar  with 
simple  amalgamation,  but  not  with  the  complicated  patio  process,  which  may  have  been  the  discovery 
of  Medina  in  1557,  and  that  in  1571  Pedro  Fcrnandes  de  Velasco  carried  this  process  to  Potosi,  in  Peru. 
And.  Hist.  Com.  sub  an.  1572,  and  the  authorities  therein  cited  ;  Beckmann,  Hist.  Inv.  i,  17.  1  am, 
however,  inclined  to  the  belief,  that  Medina's  invention  was  merely  a  modification  of,  or  improvement 
upon,  a  patio  amalgamation  process  employed  by  the  Arabian  and  afterwards  by  the  Spanish  metal- 
lurgists  in  Europe.  Agricola,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  simple  amalgamation,  also  with  the  reduc 
tion  of  silver  ores  by  roasting,  indicates  a  third  method  which  could  scarcely  have  failed  to  suggest  the 
patio  process. 


CHAriER    XI. 


THE    PI.UNDKR    OK    AMERICA. 


Brief  review  of  the  tinancia!  condition  of  Europe  at  the  period  of  the  r)iscovery — 
Dearth  of  metallic  money — Motive  of  Columbus' expedition:  to  discover  and  obtain 
j;old — Kxpeditions  of  Cortes  and  I'izarro — Kxpedition  of  l)e  Soto— This  was  essen- 
tially a  charter  to  murder,  torture  and  enslave  the  natives  of  America,  in  order  to 
obtain  gold  for  the  Crown  of  Spain — Opinions  of  Baron  von  Humboldt  and  Sir  Arthur 
Helps. 

THE  History  of  the  Precious  Metals  in  America  can  best  be  told 
after  clearing  the  ground  with  a  brief  review  of  the  monetary 
condition  and  circumstances  of  the  states  of  Europe  at  the  time  when 
America  was  discovered.  Strictly  speaking,  these  circumstances 
would  carry  us  back  quite  to  the  beginning  of  metallic  money  in 
Greece;  but  of  this  event  a  full  account  will  be  found  in  the  author's 
previous  works.  Suffice  it  to  say  in  this  place  that  after  many  experi- 
ments with  coins  of  gold  and  silver  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  republics, 
these  metals  had  been  so  far  abandonetl  as  money  that  the  measure 
of  value  in  those  states  was  eventually  made  to  depend  less  upon  the 
quantity  of  metal  contained  in  the  coins,  than  upon  the  number  of 
coins  emitted  and  kept  in  circulation  by  the  state.  The  integer  of 
these  systems  was  called  in  (ireek,  /loiniima,  in  Latin,  numisma,  both 
of  which  terms  relate  to  that  jirescription  of  law  which  conserved  and 
emphasized  the  numerical  feature  of  the  system  in  each  state.  Such 
integer  consisted  of  the  whole  sum  of  money;  not  upon  any  fraction 
of  it.  ' 

Upon  the  relinquishment  of  these  systems,  both  the  Greek  states 
and  the  republic  of  Rome  again  committed  themselves  to  metallic 
systems,  this  time  with  open  mints  or  private  coinage  ;  the  consetjuence 
of  which  was  the  gradual  concentration  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  persons,  a  circumstance  which  powerfully  assisted  the  downfall 
of  the  state.  Upon  the  assumption  of  imperial  power  over  the  Eu- 
ropean world  by  Julius  C.tsar  and  especially  by  Augustus,  private 
coinage,  or  the  issuance  of  "gentes"  coins,  was  at  once  forbidden 

•  Paulus,  in  the  Digest. 


136  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

and  the  state  once  more  assumed  the  control  of  money,  which,  although 
the  pieces  were  still  made  of  the  precious  metals,  was  so  regulated  as 
to  constitute  a  more  or  less  equitable  measure  of  value:  the  principal 
means  employed  in  this  regulation  being  the  imposition  of  mine-royal- 
ties and  a  seigniorage  or  "retinue"  upon  coinage,  coupled  with  a 
localization  of  the  bronze  and  sometimes  also  of  the  silver  issues. 
This  highly  artificial  system,  though  it  lasted  several  centuries,  gave 
way  when  the  subject  kingdoms  and  provinces  of  Rome  revolted  from 
her  control  and  established  themselves  as  independent  or  partly  in- 
dependent states;  a  movement  that  began  with  the  so-called  Barbarian 
uprisings  of  the  fifth  century  and  was  completely  consummated  when 
Constantinople  fell  in  1204. 

At  this  period  the  quantity  of  money  in  circulation,  outside  of  the 
Moslem  states,  was  extremely  small ;  according  to  Mr.  William  Jacob, 
the  vast  acquisitions  of  the  Empire  had  disappeared  chiefly  through 
wear  and  tear,  coupled  with  the  lack  of  fresh  supplies  of  the  precious 
metals  from  the  mines.  Much  of  these  metals  had  been  taken  as  spoil 
by  the  Moslems  and  transported  to  their  various  empires  in  the  Orient; 
much  had  been  absorbed  and  sequestered  by  the  temples  and  religious 
houses  of  the  West ;  and  much  had  also  been  hidden  and  lost  in  secret 
receptacles.  It  was  estimated  by  Gregory  King  in  1685  that  the 
whole  stock  of  the  precious  metals,  in  coin  and  plate,  in  Europe,  at 
the  period  of  the  Discovery  of  America  in  1492  did  not  exceed  ^35,- 
000,000  in  value;  and  to  this  estimate  Mr.  Jacob,  after  the  most 
careful  researches,  lent  his  full  support.  The  population  of  Europe 
at  that  period  could  hardly  have  exceeded  thirty  millions;  so  that  the 
quantity  of  coin  and  plate  did  not  much  exceed  in  value  ^i,  or  say 
$5  per  capita.  Of  this  amount  it  could  hardly  be  supposed  that  more 
than  one-half  consisted  of  coins.  The  low  level  of  prices  at  this  pe- 
riod fully  corroborates  this  view.  Moreover,  there  was  nothing  to 
alleviate  the  scarcity  of  money;  no  means  of  accelerating  its  move- 
ment from  hand  to  hand,  and  so  of  increasing  its  velocity  or  efiflciency ; 
no  substitutes  for  coins;  no  negotiable  instruments;  no  banks  ex- 
cept those  of  the  Italian  republics;  few  or  no  good  roads;  no  rapid 
means  of  communication;  little  peace  or  security;  and  no  credit. 
Since  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire  every  device  by  means  of  which 
this  inadequate  and  always  sinking  Measure  of  Value  could  be  en- 
larged had  been  tried,  but  in  vain.  The  ratio  of  value  between  gold 
and  silver  in  the  coins  had  been  altered  by  the  kings  of  the  western 
states  with  a  frequency  that  almost  defies  belief.  The  coins  had  been 
repeatedly  degraded  and  debased;  clipping  and  counterfeiting  were 


IHK    PLUNDKR    OF    AMERICA.  137 

offences  so  common  that  notwithstanding  the  severest  penalties,  they 
were  often  committed  by  persons  of  the  highest  resjiectability,  by 
prelates,  by  feudal  noblemen  and  even  by"  sovereign  kings.  -•-The 
emission  of  leather  moneys  had  been  repeatedly  attempted,  but  the 
general  insecurity  was  too  great  and  the  condition  of  credit  too  low 
to  admit  of  any  e.xtensive  issues  of  this  kind  of  money.,.^  Hills  of  ex- 
change known  to  the  Kast  Indians  as  hoondee<:  and  familiar  to  the 
Greeks  and  Rom-\ns  of  the  republican  periods,  had  from  the  same 
cause  almost  entirely  fallen  into  disuse.  The  cause  was  the  low  state 
of  credit.  The  social  state  itself,  so  far  as  it  depended  upon  that 
e.Kchange  of  labour  and  its  j)r()ducts  which  is  impossible  without  the 
use  of  money,  was  upon  the  point  of  dissolution,  when  Columbus  of- 
fered to  the  Crown  of  Castile  his  project  for  approaching  the  rich 
countries  of  the  Orient  by  sailing  westward. 

What  was  the  object  of  thus  seeking  Cathay  and  Japan?  To  dis- 
cover them?  They  had  long  been  discovered  and  were  well  known 
both  to  the  Moslems,  who  had  established  subject  states  in  the  Orient, 
and  to  the  Norsemen,  who  traded  eastward  with  Tartary  and  India, 
and  had  even  voyaged  westward  to  the  coasts  of  Labrador  and  Mas- 
sachusetts. The  Italians  had  long  traded  with  the  Orient  through 
Alexandria  and  had  even  sent  Marco  Polo  into  China.  No.  The  voy- 
age of  Columbus  was  not  to  discover  Cathay,  but  to  plunder  it;  to 
plunder  it  of  those  precious  metals,  to  the  use  of  which  the  Roman 
empire  had  committed  all  Europe  and  from  the  absence  of  which  its 
various  states  were  now  suffering  the  throes  of  social  decay  and  dis- 
solution. 

The  terms  which  Columbus  demanded  and  the  Crown  conceded  in 
its  contract  with  him,  is  a  proof  of  this  position.  He  demanded  one- 
eighth  of  all  the  profits  of  the  voyage.  To  this  the  Crown  consented, 
after  making  a  better  provision  for  itself,  by  requiring  that  in  the 
first  place  one-fifth  of  all  the  treasure  found  or  captured  in  the  lands 
approached  should  be  reserved  for  the  king.  The  terms  of  this  con- 
tract are  given  more  fully  in  the  author's  "  History  of  the  Precious 
Metals,"  and  therefore  they  need  not  be  repeated  here.  From  begin- 
ning to  end  it  was  essentially  a  business  bargain;  its  object  was  not  geo- 
graphical discovery,  but  gold  and  silver;  its  aim  was  not  the  dissemi- 
nation of  the  Christian  religion,  but  the  acquisition  of  plunder  and 
especially  that  kind  of  pluniler  of  which  the  Spanish  states  at  that 
period  stood  in  the  sorest  need. 

Said  the  illustrious  Von  Humboldt:  "America  was  discovered,  not 
as  has  been  so  long  falsely  pretended,  because  Columbus  predicted 


13^  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

another  Continent,  but  because  he  sought  by  the  west  a  nearer  way 
to  the  gold  mines  of  Japan  and  the  spice  countries  in  the  southeast 
of  Asia."*  The  expeditions  of  Cortes  and  Pizarro  had  precisely  the 
same  objects:  to  discover  and  acquire  the  precious  metals,  without 
permitting  any  considerations  of  religion  or  humanity  to  stand  in 
the  way  of  these  objects. 

Forty-five  years  after  the  Discovery  of  America  the  Crown  of  Spain 
made  a  contract  with  De  Soto  similar  to  that  with  Columbus.  It  will 
be  instructive  to  examine  its  details.  This  document  is  dated  Val- 
ladolid,  April  20,  1537.  It  provides  that  De  Soto  shall  be  paid  a  sal- 
ary of  1500  ducats  (each,  of  the  weight  of  about  a  half-sovereign  or 
quarter-eagle  of  the  present  day,)  and  100,000  maravedis  for  each 
one  of  three  fortresses  which  he  is  to  erect  in  the  "  Indies."  To  the 
alcade  of  the  expedition  it  awards  a  salary  of  200  gold  pesos.  De 
Soto  may  take  with  him  free  of  duty  (almojarifazgo)  negro  slaves  to 
work  the  mines.  All  salaries  except  that  of  the  alcade  are  to  be  paid 
from  the  proceeds  of  the  enterprise,  so  that  in  case  of  its  failure,  there 
will  be  nothing  to  pay.  Of  gold  obtained  from  mines,  the  king  is  to 
receive  during  the  first  year  one-tenth,  during  the  second  year  one- 
ninth,  and  so  on  until  the  proportion  is  increased  to  one-fith;  but  of 
gold  obtained  by  traffic  or  plunder,  he  is  always  to  receive  a  fifth. 
De  Soto  shall  not  be  required  to  pay  any  taxes.  He  shall  have  the 
entire  disposal  of  the  Indians.  There  shall  be  reserved  100,000 
maravedis  a  year  for  a  hospital  for  the  Spaniards,  which  shall  be  free 
from  taxes.  No  priests  or  attorneys  shall  accompany  the  expedition, 
except  the  alcade  and  such  priests  as  may  be  appointed  by  the  Crown. 
After  the  king's  fifth  is  laid  aside  from  the  spoils  of  war,  and  the  ransom 
of  caciques,  etc.,  then  one-sixth  shall  go  to  De  Soto  and  the  remain- 
der divided  among  the  men.  In  case  of  the  death  of  a  cacique, 
whether  by  murder,  public  execution,  or  disease,  one-fifth  of  his  prop- 
erty shall  go  to  the  king,  then  one-half  of  the  remainder  also  to  the 
king,  leaving  four-tenths  to  the  expedition.  Of  treasure  taken  in 
battle  or  by  traffic,  one-fifth  shall  go  to  the  king;  of  treasure  plun- 
dered from  native  temples,  graves,  houses  or  grounds,  one-half  to 
the  king  without  discount,  the  remainder  to  the  discoverer.  Signed, 
Charles,  The  King.  ' 

Here  is  a  charter  to  murder,  torture  and  enslave  human  beings,  to 
despoil  temples  and  to  desecrate  graves.      It  is  signed  by  the  King 

*  "  Fluctuations  of  Gold,"  Berlin,  1838.     American  edition,  1S99,  p.  10. 

*  This  document  appears  in  full  in  the  New  York  Historical  Magazine  for  February, 
1861.     (Br.  Mu.  Press  mark,  P.  P.  6323.) 


IHE    I'LUNDKk    OK    AMKRICA. 


139 


of  Spain  who  was  also  the  Emperor  of  Germany;  it  is  committed  to 
a  swash-buckler  who  by  the  most  infamous  means  hail  made  his  for- 
tune with  Pizarro  in  Peru;  it  is  as  sordid  a  document  as  ever  was 
penned  ;  a  disgrace  to  Spain,  to  Christianity,  to  civilization.  It  plainly 
and  unequivocally  lays  bare  llic  motive  of  this  expedition.  Tliis  was 
not  to  discover  or  explore  North  America,  but  to  jiluiider  it  of  gold 
and  silver,  to  replenish  the  coffers  of  the  king,  to  |)rovide  those 
blood-stained  metals  out  of  which  man,  in  retrogressive  periods,  is 
obliged,  through  his  own  degeneracy  and  distrust  of  his  fellow-men, 
to  fabricate  his  Measure  of  Value.  Said  Sir  Arthur  Helps,  the  ac- 
complished historian  of  the  Spanish  Conquest  of  America:  "The 
blood-cemented  walls  of  the  Alcazar  of  Madrid  might  boast  of  being 
raised  upon  a  complication  of  human  suffering  hitherto  unparallelled 
in  the  annals  of  mankintl.  .  .  .  Each  ducat  spent  upon  these  palaces, 
was,  at  a  moderate  computation,  freighted  with  ten  human  lives."  ' 
Let  us  be  still  more  moderate  and  say  one  human  life  to  the  ducat: 
even  this  was  sufficiently  atrocious. 

*  "The  Spanish  Conquest  in  America,"  London,  1857,  in,  215. 


CHAPTER   XII. 


HISPAXIOLA. 


Gold  the  first  inquiry  of  Columbus — Its  fatal  significance  to  the  natives — Columbus' 
second  voyage — The  mines  of  Cibao — Columbus  proposes  to  ship  the  natives  as  slaves 
to  Spain — Sufferings  of  the  colonists — Their  search  for  gold — Their  disappointment 
and  cruelty — Columbus  ships  four  cargoes  of  natives  to  Spain  as'slaves^r-He  hunts 
the  natives  with  bloodhounds — Despair  of  the  natives — Columbus  reduces  them  all  to 
vassalage — Their  rapid  exhaustion  and  extinction — Story  of  the  cacique  Hatuey — The 
golden  calf — Cruelty  of  Ovando — Death  of  Queen  Isabella — Her  terrible  legacy  to 
Ferdinand — Columbus  dies  in  poverty  and  debt — Forty  thousand  natives  dragged  from 
the  Bahamas  and  condemned  to  the  mines — Character  of  the  gold-seekers. 

NO  sooner  had  Columbus  taken  formal  possession  of  the  island  of 
Hispaniola  than  he  asked  the  wondering  natives  for  gold. 
This  fatal  word,  so  fraught  with  misfortune  to  the  aborigines  that  it 
might  fittingly  furnish  an  epitaph  for  their  race,  and  so  tainted  with 
dishonour  to  their  conquerors  that  four  centuries  of  time  have  not 
sufficed  to  remove  its  stigma,  seems  to  have  been  literally  the  first 
verbal  communication  from  the  Old  World  to  the  New. 

Some  of  the  islanders  had  a  few  gold  ornaments  about  them.  ' '  Poor 
wretches  "  (says  Navarette)  "if  they  had  possessed  the  slightest  gift 
of  prophecy,  they  would  have  thrown  these  baubles  into  the  deepest 
sea!"  They  pointed  south  and  answered,  "  Cubanacan,"  meaning 
the  middle  of  Cuba. 

Shortly  after  the  discovery,  Columbus  was  wrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Cuba,  and  he  sent  to  the  neighbouring  cacique,  Guacanagari,  to  in- 
form him  of  his  misfortune.  The  good  chief  was  moved  to  tears  by 
the  sad  accident,  and  with  the  labour  of  his  people  lightened  the 
wrecked  vessel,  removed  the  effects  to  a  place  of  safety,  stationed 
guards  around  them  for  their  better  security,  and  then  offered  Co- 
lumbus all  of  his  own  property  to  make  good  any  loss  which  the  lat- 
ter had  sustained. 

Touched  by  this  unparallelled  kindness,  Columbus  thus  expressed 
himself  of  these  Indios:  "They  are  a  loving  uncovetous  people,  so 
docile  in  all  things  that,  I  assure  your  Highnesses,  I  believe  in  all  the 
world  there  is  not  a  better  people  or  a  better  country ;  they  love  their 


lilSI'AMOLA.  141 

neijrhbours  as  themselves,  and  they  have  the  sweetest  way  in  the 
world  of  talking;,  anil  always  with  a  smile." 

In  return  for  their  hospitality  and  loving  kindness,  the  Sjianish 
captain  resolved  to  establish  a  colony  among  them,  having  fomul  such 
goodwill  and  such  signs  of  gold.  He  built  a  fort,  called  it  La  Navi- 
dad,  left  forty  adventurers  in  it,  among  them  an  Irishman  and  an 
Englishman,  and  sailed  to  Spain. 

The  first  thing  done,  after  his  return  home — the  recital  of  his  won- 
drous story,  his  recejition  at  the  Court  of  Sjiain,  and  the  Te  Deum — 
was  to  obtain  a  grant  of  the  newly-found  domain  and  all  its  contents, 
animate  and  inanimate,  from  the  Pope  of  Rome.  These  objects  were 
effected  by  a  Hull,  dated  May,  1493. 

In  September,  1493,  Columbus  set  forth  again,  this  time  with  sev- 
enteen vessels  and  1500  men. 

He  found  La  Xavidad  destroyed,  and  his  forty  colonists  missing-. 
According  to  the  cacique,  Ciuacanagari,  the  Spaniards  had  made  a 
raid,  probably  for  gold,  upon  a  tribe  of  the  interior,  and  notwith- 
standing the  atlvantages  of  their  arms,  had  been  defeated  antl  killed 
to  a  man.  Columbus  built  another  fort  in  another  part  of  the  island, 
called  it  Isabella,  and  at  once  gave  his  attention  to  the  subject  of 
gold. 

"  Hearing  of  the  mines  of  Cibao,  he  sent  to  reconnoitre  them  ;  and 
the  Indios,  little  foreseeing  what  was  to  come  of  it,  gave  gold  to  the 
Spanish  messengers.  Columbus  accordingly  resolved  to  found  a 
colony  at  Cibao." 

In  January,  1494,  Columbus  sent  to  the  joint  sovereigns  of  Sjiain, 
by  the  hands  of  Antonio  de  Torres,  the  Receiver  of  the  colony,  an 
account  of  his  second  voyage,  with  recommendations  for  the  consid- 
eration and  ajiproval  of  Los  Reyes. 

After  the  complimentary  address,  it  begins  with  the  reasons  why 
the  admiral  had  not  been  able  to  semi  home  more  gold.  His  people 
have  been  ill;  it  was  necessary  to  keep  guarti,  etc.  " //<• //</.y  done 
well,"'  is  written  in  the  margin  by  order  of  Los  Reyes. 

He  suggests  the  building  of  a  fortress  near  the  place  where  gold 
can  be  got.  Their  Highnesses  approve:  *'  This  is  n'cll,  a/ui  so  it  must 
be  done. " 

He  then  suggests  to  make  slaves  of  the  Indios,  and  to  ship  some 
of  them  to  Spain,  to  help  j)ay  for  the  e.xpenses  of  the  e-xjiedition. 
The  answer  to  this  atrocious  project  is  evasive,  as  though  Los  Reyes 
did  not  wish  to  wound  so  valued  a  servant  by  a  jioint  blank  refusal. 
It  is:    ''*^  Suspended  for  t/ie  present." 


142  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Money  was  very  welcome  at  the  Spanish  Court,  where  there  was 
more  show  than  maravedis;  but  Los  Reyes  were  not  yet  prepared  to 
obtain  it  by  sanctioning  the  enslavement  of  an  innocent  and  friendly 
people.      On  the  other  hand,  Columbus  was  eager  for  the  measure. 

While  de  Torres  was  at  the  Court  with  these  recommendations, 
Columbus'  colony  fared  badly  on  the  island.  The  provisions  which 
they  had  brought  with  them  failed,  and  white  men  were  threatened 
with  starvation,  where  the  Indios  lived  without  effort.  To  their  great 
disgust  the  Spaniards  had  to  go  to  work,  and  till  the  earth  for  bread, 
instead  of  scouring  it,  as  they  had  expected,  for  gold. 

"The  rage  and  vexation  of  these  men,  many  of  whom  had  come 
out  with  the  notion  of  finding  gold  ready  for  them  on  the  sea  shore, 
may  be  imagined.  .  .  .  The  colonists,  however,  were  somewhat 
cheered,  after  a  time,  by  hearing  of  goldmines,  and  seeing  specimens 
of  'ore'  brought  from  thence;  and  the  admiral  went  himself,  and 
founded  the  fort  of  St.  Thomas,  in  the  mining  district  of  Cibao." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that,  without  the  establishment  of  any  perma- 
nent sources  of  supplies,  the  gold  hunters  failed  in  their  enterprise, 
and  most  of  them  lost  their  lives.  "  They  went  straggling  over  the 
■country;  they  consumed  the  provisions  of  the  poor  Indians,  aston- 
ishing them  by  their  voracious  appetites;  waste,  rapine,  injury  and 
insult  followed  in  their  steps." 

Worn  out  with  their  sufferings,  the  miserable  Indios  "'  passed  from 
terror  to  despair,"  and  threatened  the  Spanish  settlement.  Columbus 
sallies  forth,  routs  the  Indios  of  Macorix,  and  captures  the  majority, 
four  shiploads  of  whom  he  sends  to  Spain,  February  24,  1495,  ^^ 
slaves.  These  were  the  very  ships  that  brought  out  the  evasive  re- 
ply of  Los  Reyes  to  Columbus'  request  for  leave  to  enslave  the  na- 
tives. 

After  this,  Columbus  starts  upon  another  expedition,  at  the  head 
•  of  400  cavalry,  clad  in  steel,  armed  with  arquebuses,  and  attended 
by  bloodhounds.  He  is  opposed  by  100,000  Indios.  Their  soft  and 
naked  bodies  not  being  proof  against  horses,  fire-arms,  or  ferocious 
dogs,  a  horrible  carnage  ensues,  and  another  bloody  installment  is 
paid  towards  the  cost  of  gold.  Columbus  captures  the  cacique,  Ca- 
onabo,  through  the  vilest  treachery,  and  imposes  a  tribute  of  gold 
upon  the  entire  population  of  Hispaniola. 

The  tribute  is  as  follows:  Every  Indio  above  fourteen  years  old, 
who  was  in  the  provinces  of  the  mines,  or  near  to  these  provinces, 
was  to  pay  every  three  months  a  little  bellfull  of  gold;  and  all  other 
Indios  an  arroba  of  cotton. 


msi' \NU)i.A.  143 

When  this  unrfasonable  tribute  was  imposed,  (lUarionox,  tai  nine 
of  the  Vej^ifa  Real,  said  that  his  people  did  not  know  where  to  tind 
the  golil,  and  offered  in  its  place  to  cultivate  a  hiiji;e  farm,  fifty-five 
leagues  long,  covering  the  whole  island,  and  to  produce  therefrom 
enough  corn  to  feed  the  whole  of  Castile.  Poor  Indiol  This  was, 
indeed,  a  suggestion  of  despair.  Hispaniola,  at  the  utmost,  did  not 
contain  more  than  1.200,000  Indios.  man.  woman,  and  child.  Castile 
contained  a  population  of  3,000,000  or  4,000,000.  An  attempt  to  feed 
a  population  so  large  by  one  so  small,  and  at  a  distance  of  4,000 
miles,  C(Hild  only  have  ended  in  failure.  Hut  Guarione.v  might  as 
well  have  made  this  as  any  other  pro|)osal.  What  their  Catholic 
Majesties  wanted  was  not  bread  but  gold;  and  this  is  what,  in  their 
names,  Columbus  was  bent  upon  obtaining.  Yet  however  much  he 
desired  it,  the  gold  could  not  be  collected,  simply  because  there  were 
no  gold  mines  of  any  consequence,  only  some  poor  washings,  in  His- 
paniola, from  whence  it  might  be  got.  Columbus  was,  therefore, 
obliged  to  change  the  nature  of  his  oppressions.  This  was  done  by 
reducing  the  whole  native  population  to  vassalage;  and  thus,  in  the 
vear  of  our  Lord  1496,  was  begun  the  system  of  rcpartiniientos  in 
America.  '  Such  was  the  reward  for  the  unparallelled  kindness  of 
good  Guacanagari,  and  for  his  loving,  uncovetous  people,  "  who  al- 
ways spoke  with  a  smile." 

Reduced  to  a  condition  of  vassakige,  infinitely  worse  than  slavt-ry, 
the  Indios  fell  into  the  profoundest  sadness,  and  bethought  them- 
selves of  the  desperate  remedy  of  attempting  to  starve  out  their 
masters  by  refusing  to  sow  or  plant  anything.  The  wild  scheme  re- 
acted upon  themselves.  The  Spaniards  did,  indeed,  suffer  from 
famine:  but  power,  exercised  in  the  crudest  manner,  enabltnl  them  to 
elude  the  fate  which  had  been  intended  for  them;  whilst  the  Indios 
died  in  great  numbers  of  hunger,  sickness  and  misery. 

In  the  early  part  of  1496,  Columbus  discovered  a  gold  mine  in  the 
south-eastern  part  of  Hispaniola.  On  his  return  to  Spain  in  the  same 
year  he  sent  out  orders  to  his  brother  Bartholomew  to  build  a  fort 
there.  This  was  done  and  the  place  called  San  Domingo.  Krom 
this  port   Bartholomew  sailed  out  to  Xaragua,  east  of  the  modern 

'  The  repartimiento,  aften\ards  the  cncomienda,  was  derived  from  the  feudal  ten- 
ures of  .Spain.  It  was  a  grant  of  Indios  (not  including  land)  to  render  fixed  tribute, 
or  personal  services,  or  both,  during  the  life  of  the  encomiendero  or  suzerain.  This 
was  afterwards  extended  to  two,  three,  four,  five  and  six  lives,  and  was  greatly  abused. 
Consult  Ir\ing's  "Conquest  of  Granada,"  vol.  i,  pp.  145,  164,  173,  i<;7,  i(;S,  .'•nd  iv, 
p.  353  €t  seq. 


144 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


Fort-au-Prince,  the  only  unconquered  portion  of  the  island.  He  re- 
duced it  to  vassalage  and  demanded  tribute  in  gold.  The  cacique 
Bohechio  pleaded  that  there  was  no  gold  in  his  dominions;  so  the 
tribute  had  to  be  commuted  in  cotton  and  cassaba-bread.  Returning 
to  Fort  Isabella,  Bartholomew  found  that  300  of  his  followers  had 
died  from  hunger  and  disease,  the  first  considerable  installment  of  the 
myriads  of  Spaniards  who  subsequently  perished  in  the  same  crimi- 
nal search  for  the  precious  metals. 

In  1498  Columbus  again  set  forth  from  Spain — this  time  with  eight 
ships  and  about  900  men.  Upon  his  arrival  at  San  Domingo  he  sent 
five  of  these  ships  to  Spain  laden  with  600  slaves. 

The  Court  of  Spain — at  first  conditionally,  as  though  it  hesitated 
to  thwart  its  favourite  commanders,  afterwards  absolutely,  when  it 
found  that  none  of  them  were  above  the  practice,  and  that  all  evaded 
the  conditions — disapproved  of  enslaving  the  Indios.  Its  objection  to 
this  transaction  of  Columbus  was  that  the  captives  were  not  taken 
in  war,  and  it  marked  the  severity  of  its  displeasure  by  superseding 
Columbus  in  his  command  and  ordering  him  home. 

The  officer  choosen  to  replace  him  was  Ovando.  In  the  instructions 
given  to  this  knight  A.D..i5oi,he  was  orderedto  treat  the  Indios  justly, 
and  pay  them  one  golden  peso  a  year  for  their  labour  in  getting  gold. 
Between  subjecting  themselves  to  these  conditions  and  living  in  a 
state  of  slavery,  there  could  have  been  to  the  Indios  but  little  choice, 
even  if  it  had  been  accorded  to  them.  It  is  due  to  the  Spanish  Crown 
to  say  that  deceived  by  the  reports  of  the  over-sanguine  gold-hunters, 
it  supposed  that  gold  was  easy  of  acquisition  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
that  a  moderate  amount  of  involuntary  labour  on  the  part  of  the 
natives  would  suffice  to  produce  what  was  demanded  of  them. 

Ovando  left  Spain  in  1502  with  a  score  or  more  vessels,  and  2,500 
persons.  As  these  vessels  neared  the  shore  of  San  Domingo,  the 
colonists  ran  down  to  hear  the  news  from  home,  and,  in  return,  to 
narrate  that  a  lump  of  gold  of  extraordinary  size  had  recently  been 
obtained  on  the  island.  It  had  been  picked  up  by  a  native  woman 
and  was  estimated  to  have  been  worth  1,350,000  maravedis.  Nothing 
more  clearly  reveals  the  character  of  these  expeditions  and  the  per- 
sons who  composed  them,  than  a  brief  relation  of  the  fatal  conse- 
quences of  this  announcement.  Ovando's  people  no  sooner  landed 
than  they  ran  off  to  the  placers,  where,  in  a  short  time,  more  than 
1,000  of  the  2,500  perished  miserably  from  hunger  and  disease. 

"  Here  it  may  be  noticed  that,  in  general,  those  colonists  who  de- 
voted themselves  to  mining,  remained  poor;  while  the  farmers  grew 


HISPANIOLA.  145 

rich.  When  nieltin)^  time  came,  whicli  was  at  stated  intervals  of 
eight  months,  it  often  hap|)enetl  that  after  the  king's  dues  were  paid, 
anil  those  who  had  claims  upon  the  produce  fc)r  advances  already 
made  to  the  miners,  were  satisfied,  nothing  remained  for  the  miner 
himself.  And  so  all  this  blood  and  toil  were  not  paid  /or,  even  in  money : 
and  many  still  continued  to  eat  their  meals  from  the  same  wooden 
platters  they  had  been  accustomed  to  in  the  old  country;  only  with 
discontented  minds  and  souls  beginning  to  be  imbruted  with  cruelt\ .  ** 
(Helps.) 

At  this  juncture,  Columbus,  authorized  to  make  further  explora- 
tions in  the  New  World,  suddenly  appeared  at  San  Domingo.  The 
orders  of  the  Crown  forbade  him  to  disembark  at  the  islanti,  for  fear 
that  the  course  of  administration  for  which  he  had  been  rebuked 
would  be  persisted  in;  but  a  violent  hurricane  was  apprehended,  and 
the  safety  of  his  fleet  afforded  him  sufficient  e.xcuse  to  seek  a  har- 
bour. In  this  storm,  which  took  place  as  the  admiral  had  forseen, 
the  greater  part  of  a  large  fleet  of  vessels  which  had  recently  set  sail 
for  Spain  were  lost,  with  all  t)n  board — another  sacrifice  to  the  thirst 
for  gold. 

Shortly  after  this,  a  force  of  400  men  was  sent  to  reduce  the  Indies 
of  the  province  of  Higuey.  These  unfortunates  were  hunted  with 
firearms  and  bloodhounds.  Of  the  captives  taken,  those  not  wanted 
as  slaves  had  both  their  hands  cut  off,  many  were  thrown  to  the  dogs, 
and  several  thousand  put  to  the  sword. 

Ovando,  finding  that,  under  the  merciful  instructions  of  Los  Reyes 
about  dealing  with  the  Indios,  he  could  get  no  gold — for  they  shunned 
the  Spaniards  "as  the  sparrow  the  hawk"  and  fled  to  the  woods, 
there  to  avoid  them  and  die — transmitted  to  the  Court  a  report  to 
this  effect.  In  a  reply  dated  December,  1503,  Ovando  was  directed 
"to  compel"  the  Indios  to  have  dealings  with  the  Spaniards;  and 
thus  the  slave  system  begun  by  Columbus,  was  re-establishetl  by  the 
Court. 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  in  this  place  to  hear  what  the  Indios 
themselves  thought  about  the  conquest  of  America  and  the  motives 
which  impelled  the  Spaniards  in  its  prosecution.  Something  of  this 
is  embodied  in  the  story  of  Hatuey,  cacique  of  a  province  of  Cuba. 

Apprehensive  that  the  Spaniards  would  come,  as  they  afterwards 
did  come,  to  his  territory.  Hatuey  called  his  people  together  and 
recounting  the  cruelties  of  the  white  men,  said  they  did  all  these 
things  for  a  great  (iod  whom  they  loved  much.  This  God  he  would 
show  them.    Accordingly  he  produced  a  small  casket  filled  with  gold. 


146  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

"  Here  is  the  God  whom  they  serve  and  after  whom  they  go;  and, as  you 
have  heard,  already  they  are  longing  to  pass  over  to  this  place,  not  pre- 
tending more  than  to  seek  tJiis  God;  wherefore  let  us  make  to  him  here  a 
festival  and  dances,  so  that  when  they  come,  He  may  tell  them  to  do 
us  no  harm."     (Herrera.) 

The  Indios  approved  this  council,  and  to  propitiate  the  God  whom 
they  thought  their  enemies  worshipped,  they  danced  around  it  until 
they  were  exhausted;  when  the  cacique  turned  to  them  and  said  that 
they  should  not  keep  the  God  of  the  Christians  anywhere,  for  were 
it  even  in  their  entrails  it  would  be  torn  out;  but  that  they  should 
throw  it  in  the  river  that  the  Christians  might  not  know  where  it  was; 
"and  there,"  says  the  account  "they  threw  it." 

In  1503,  Ovando  set  out  with  70  horsemen  and  300  foot-soldiers  to 
visit  the  friendly  Queen  Anacaona  of  Xaragua,  who  hospitably  re- 
ceived him  with  feasting  and  rejoicing.  In  return,  Ovando,  whose 
object  was  to  terrify  the  unhappy  natives  into  submission  and  slavery, 
invited  the  chiefs  to  a  mock  tournament,  where,  at  a  signal  from 
himself,  the  queen  and  her  caciques  were  all  treacherously  captured, 
the  former  was  put  to  death  by  hanging  and  the  latter  were  burnt 
alive. 

Shortly  afterwards,  in  an  expedition  against  the  Indios  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Higuey,  the  Spaniards  cut  off  the  hands  of  their  captives, 
hanged  thirteen  of  them  "in  honour  and  reverence  of  Christ  our 
Lord  and  his  twelve  Apostles,"  and  used  the  hanging  bodies  of  their 
miserable  victims  as  dumb  figures  to  try  their  swords  upon.  At 
another  time,  the  Indios  were  burnt  alive  in  a  sort  of  wooden  cradle. 
^'  Todo  esto  yo  lo  vide  con  mis  ojos  corpOrales  mortales. "  All  this  I 
saw  with  my  own  corporeal  mortal  eyes.      (Las  Casas.) 

Queen  Isabella  of  Spain  died  in  November,  1504.  Could  she  with 
her  dying  eyes  have  seen  into  the  Far  West,  she  would  have  "beheld 
the  Indian  labouring  at  the  mine  under  the  most  cruel  buffetings,  his 
family  neglected,  perishing, , or  enslaved;  she  would  have  marked  him 
on  his  return,  after  eight  months  of  dire  toil,  enter  a  place  which 
knew  him  not,  or  a  household  that  could  only  sorrow  over  the  gaunt 
creature  who  had  returned  to  them,  and  mingle  their  sorrows  with 
his;  or,  still  more  sad,  she  would  have  seen  Indians  who  had  been 
brought  from  far  distant  homes,  linger  at  the  mines,  too  hopeless  or 
too  careless  to  return." 

Isabella's  will  contained  a  bequest  which  unfortunately  removed  all 
restraint  from  the  oppressions  visited  upon  the  Indios.  She  left  to 
her  widower,  the  Regent  Ferduiand,  one-half  of  the  revenues  of  the 


HISPANIDI.A.  147 

Indies  as  a  life  estate.  In  the  methotls  which  were  resorieci  to  for 
the  collection  of  these  revenues,  this  meant  one-half  of  the  jj;oltl 
which  could  be  extorted  by  the  sweat  and  bhjod  of  the  Indios;  and 
Kerilinand,  needy  and  thusenck)wed,  withheld  no  licence  to  the  adven- 
turers in  America,  which  they  alleged  was  needful  in  order  to  swell  the 
Fifths  due  to  the  Crown,  and  the  importance  of  the  Queen's  lejjjacV. 

Upon  the  death  of  Isabella,  K'^'dinand,  not  being  the  immediate 
heir  to  the  crown  of  Spain,  retired  to  his  kingdom  of  Naples,  and 
was  succeeded  in  the  government  of  Spain  by  King  Philij).  This 
monarch  died  in  1506,  and  Ferilinand  then  became  King  of  Spain. 
A  few  months  beft)re  this,  Columbus  had  died,  and,  as  we  shall  see  of 
all  the  Contpiistadores,  in  poverty  and  debt. 

At  this  period  the  Indios  had  become  "a  sort  of  money"  which 
was  granted  in  repartimiento  to  favourites  at  the  Spanish  court. 
*' The  mania  for  gold-fiiuling  was  now  probably  at  its  height,  and 
the  sacrifice  of  Inilian  life  proportionately  great."  So  few  of  the 
Indios  remained  alive  that  negro  slaves  began  to  be  imported  from 
Africa  to  fill  their  places  at  the  mines. 

The  king  was  told  that  the  Hahania  Islaiuls  were  full  of  Indios  who 
might  be  transported  to  Hispaniola  in  order  that  "  they  might  assist 
in  getting  gold,  and  the  king  be  much  served."  Kerdinand,  who 
was  fully  a.>  mindful  of  his  interests  as  the  adventurers  u|)on  the 
islands,  gave  the  required  licence,  and  the  evil  work  commenced. 
In  five  years  time,  forty  thousand  of  the  Bahamians,  captured  under 
every  circumstance  of  treachery  and  cruelty,  were  transported  across 
the  sea,  all  of  them  to  die  lingering  deaths  at  the  gold  mines. 

This  was  among  the  last  acts  of  theOvando  atlministration,  which 
closed  with  the  appointment  of  Diego  Columbus  in  1509.  Only  seven- 
teen years  had  elapsed  since  the  discovery  of  the  island.  According 
to  Humboldt's  "  Fluctuations  of  Ciolil,"  the  amount  of  gold  thus  far 
obtained  was  scarcely  more  than  five  million  dollars.  The  cost  of 
its  production  was  several  expensive  expeditions  with  tluir  outfits, 
some  thousands  of  Spanish  lives,  and  at  least  a  million  ami  a  half  of 
Indios! 

Such  was  the  cruelty  of  the  gold-hunters,  and  the  terror  they  in- 
spired in  the  natives,  that  according  to  the  Abbe  Raynal,  when  Drake 
captured  San  Domingo  in  i5«S6,  he  learned  fnmi  the  few  survivors  of 
what  had  once  been  a  populous  country  that,  rather  than  become  the 
fathers  of  children  who  might  l)e  subjected  to  the  treatment  which 
they  had  endured,  they  had  unanimously  refrained  from  conjugal  ni- 
tercourse. 


148 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


It  must  not  be  supposed  that  these  atrocities  were  peculiar  to  the 
Spaniards:  rather  was  it  peculiar  to  the  class  of  adventurers  to  be 
found  in  all  countries  who,  in  the  hope  of  rapidly  and  easily  acquired 
fortunes,  coupled  with  the  fascination  of  a  career  of  adventure,  licence, 
and  rapine,  are  the  first  to  brave  the  dangers  and  seek  the  profits  oi 
a  miner's  life.  Similar  cruelties  have  been  related  of  the  ancients, 
who  were  not  Spaniards.  Similar  ones  can  also  be  told  of  the  Portu- 
gese, the  English,  the  French,  as  well  as  the  Americans.  They  are 
narrated  here  of  the  Spaniards  simply  because  these  instances  are 
connected  with  the  greatest  supply  of  the  precious  metals  known  to 
history. 

"  I  swear  that  numbers  of  men  have  gone  to  the  Indies  who  did 
not  deserve  water  from  God  or  man,"  wrote  Columbus  to  the  home 
government,  and  it  was  the  same,  with  those  who  went  from  other 
countries  than  Spain. 

The  vilest  scoundrels  in  Europe  were  let  loose  upon  the  unoffend- 
ing aborigines  of  America,  and  the  darkest  and  most  detestable  crimes 
were  committed  in  the  sacred  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 

To  these  cruelties  the  necessities  of  the  Crown  opened  the  door. 
A  letter  of  King  Ferdinand  to  the  colonists  of  Hispaniola  is  thus 
fairly  paraphrased:  "Get  gold:  humanely  if  you  can;  but  at  all 
hazards  get  gold;  and  here  are  facilities  for  you." 


CHAPTER    XI IT. 


KL    DORADO. 


The  legend  of  Dorado — Religious  ceremony  of  tlu-  M  iii>ka  Indians  of  Ne\v(iranada — 
\'ersion  of  Martinez — Simon — Orellana — Sir  Walter  Raleigh — \ain  searches  for  the 
tiolden  Country  of  the  legend — The  real  gold  country  of  South  America  found  by  the 
Portuguese  in  Hrazil — Terra  Firnia  mistaken  for  Dorado — The  former  an  earthly  para- 
dise— (iold  money  and  trinkets  of  the  natives — Desolation  caused  by  the  European 
gold  hunters — The  pearl  fishery — Slave  huilting — Las  Casas — His  despair  and  retire- 
ment— Cruelties  of  the  Spaniards — The  actual  gold  region  of  Terra  Kirma,  or  Vene- 
zuela—Its present  condition. 

EL  DORADO  means  "The  Golden,"  or  "The  C.ildecl."  It  was 
applied  by  the  Spaniards  to  that  ccnintry  of  limitless  gold  which 
their  avid  imagination  hatl  located  in  South  America,  some  of  them 
fixing  it  in  the  Valley  of  the  Esseciuibo.  others  in  that  of  the  Orinoco, 
and  others  again  among  the  Muiska  Indians  of  Bogota,  whose  high- 
priest,  it  was  said,  clothed  himself  tliiring  a  religious  ceremony,  with 
the  dust  of  the  metal  so  much  coveted  by  the  Spaniartls.  Martinez 
saw  Kl  Dorado  in  Manoa,  a  city  of  Guiana,  whose  buildings  were 
roofed  with  gold;  while  in  1540,  C)rellana  recognized  it  in  the  valley 
of  the  Amazon,  whither  Raleigh  afterwards  went  to  seek  it,  but  founii 
it  not.  In  truth,  it  never  existed  at  all.  It  was  a  myth  created  by 
cupidity  and  nourished  by  credulity,  the  search  for  which  cost  the 
lives  of  myriatis  of  natives  and  not  a  few  adventurers,  both  Spanish, 
English  and  others. 

One  of  the  legends  of  Kl  Doratlo  is  given  by  a  Spanish  monk  named 
Simon,  who  says  that  a  Spanish  captain  named  Sebastiano  I'.elalcazar 
having  invaded  the  district  of  Lake  Guatavita  near  Hogotd,  ques- 
tioned the  natives  about  gold,  asking  the  s|K)kesman  if  there  was  any 
such  metal  in  his  coimtry.  "  He  answered  that  there  was  abun- 
dance of  it,  together  with  many  emeralds,  which  he  called  green- 
stones," and  adiled  that  "there  was  a  lake  in  the  land  of  his  over- 
loril  which  the  latter  entered  several  times  a  year,  upon  a  raft,  ad- 
vancing to  its  centre,  he  being  naked,  except  that  his  entire  body 
was  covered  from  head  to  foot  with  an  adhesive  gum,  upon  which 
was  sprinkled  a  great  quantity  of  golil  dust.      This  dust  sticking  to 


IS*'  HISTORY    OF    THE    .PRECIOUS    METALS. 

the  gum  became  a  coating  of  gold,  which  upon  a  clear  day  shone  re- 
splendently  in  the  rising  sun;  such  being  the  hour  selected  for  the 
ceremony.  He  then  made  sacrifices  and  offerings,  throwing  into  the 
water  some  pieces  of  gold  and  emeralds.  Then  he  caused  himself  to 
be  washed  with  saponaceous  herbs,  when  all  the  gold  upon  his  per- 
son fell  into  the  lake  and  was  lost  to  view.  The  ceremony  being  con- 
cluded, he  came  ashore  and  resumed  his  ordinary  vestments.  This 
news  was  so  welcome  to  Belalcazar  and  his  followers  that  they  deter- 
mined to  penetrate  this  golden  country,  which  they  called  La  Pro- 
vincia  del  Dorado — that  is  to  say,  the  Golden  province,  where  the 
cacique  gilds  his  body  before  offering  sacrifices.  Such  is  the  root 
and  branch  of  the  story  that  has  gone  out  into  the  world  under  so 
many  different  forms  by  the  name  of  El  Dorado." 

Another  version  of  the  DoradS  appears  to  have  originated  with 
Francisco  Orellana,  a  companion  of  Pizarro  in  Peru.  When  in  1540 
Gonzalo  Pizarro  started  to  hunt  for  gold  and  slaves  east  of  the  Andes, 
Orellana  was  second  in  command  of  the  expedition,  which  comprised 
350  Spaniards,  4,000  Indian  porters,  and  1,000  blood-hounds  for  hunt- 
ing down  the  natives.  After  crossing  the  mountains,  the  Spaniards 
discovered  the  Napo,  one  of  the  upper  affluents  of  the  Amazon.  De- 
spairing, for  lack  of  provisions,  of  being  able  to  return  by  the  route 
they  had  taken,  the  adventurers  constructed  a  "brigantine"  large 
enough  to  hold  a  portion  of  their  numbers  and  the  baggage.  The 
command  of  this  vessel  was  given  by  Pizarro  to  Orellana,  with  in- 
structions to  keep  in  touch  with  those  who  intended  to  follow  the 
course  of  the  stream  afoot.  Their  provisions  becoming  at  length  en- 
tirely exhausted,  Orellana  was  instructed  to  drop  down  the  stream 
with  50  soldiers,  to  a  village  reputed  to  be  some  leagues  below  and 
return  with  such  provisions  as  he  could  secure.  In  three  days  Orel- 
lana reached  the  Amazon,  which  here  flowed  through  a  wilderness 
destitute  of  human  food.  To  return  was  difficult;  to  abandon  his 
commander  and  continue  down  the  stream,  was  a  course  that  prom- 
ised many  advantages.  This  course  he  adopted.  Starting  from  the 
confluence  of  the  Napo  and  Amazon,  in  February,  1541,  Orellana 
reached  the  ocean  in  the  following  August,  thence  he  sailed  to  Cu- 
bagua  and  afterwards  to  Spain.  Broken  in  fortune,  health  and  rep- 
utation, Orellana  had  still  a  card  left  to  play;  this  he  found  in  his 
fertile  imagination.  He  reported  that  he  had  voyaged  through  a  coun- 
try only  inhabited  by  women,  and  where  gold  was  so  plentiful  that 
houses  were  roofed  with  it.  In  Manoa,  the  capital,  the  temples  were 
built  with  the  same  costly  material.     Nothing  was  too  extravagant  to 


EL    l)(.)KADO.  15  r 

be  believed  by  the  greedy  ears  of  cupidity.  His  tale  spread  so  fast 
and  received  such  wide  belief  that  several  expeditions  were  organized, 
some  within  the  same  year,  to  subline  the  fair  huntresses  of  South 
America  and  carry  home  to  Spain  the  sheathing  of  their  golden  tem- 
ples and  dwellings.  One  of  these  e.xpeditions  was  headed  by  Philip 
de  Hutten,  a  German  knight,  who  started  late  in  1541  from  Caro,  on 
the  Pearl  Coast,  with  a  small  band  of  Spaniards.  After  a  brief  ab- 
sence he  returned  to  the  coast  with  the  story  that  he  had  penetrated 
to  the  capital  of  the  Omegas,  that  the  roofs  of  the  houses  shone  like 
gold,  but  that  he  had  been  driven  away  by  the  natives  and  therefore 
required  a  larger  force  and  "  more  capital  "  to  prosecute  the  adven- 
ture. There  was  no  tribe  of  Omegas  in  South  America.  There  was 
a  tribe  of  Amaguas  on  the  banks  of  the  Amazon,  but  it  does  not  ap- 
pear that  Hutten  had  traversed  so  great  a  distance.  Should  it  be 
admitted  that  this  gold  hunting  ''noble"  was  capable  of  drawing  the 
long-bow,  his  story  might  be  explained  without  discussing  this  objec- 
tion. However,  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  what  he  wanted — more 
men  and  more  capital;  but  while  preparing  his  second  expedition,  he 
perished  by  the  hand  of  one  of  his  associates.     (Malouet's  "  Guyane.") 

In  1545  Orellana,  having  procured  sufificient  capital  for  the  pur- 
pose, set  sail  from  Spain  with  a  large  and  well  equipped  force,  to 
conquer  the  haughty  Amazons  and  pillage  their  imaginary  Dorado. 
He  was  fortunate  in  dying  peaceably  on  the  voyage,  for  his  com- 
panions would  assuredly  have  murdered  him  when  they  came  face  to 
face  with  the  dismal  truth.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  expedition 
miserably  failed;  but  though  Orellana  died  and  his  expedition  per- 
ished, his  lie  lived  a  long  life;  and  it  is  possibly  not  quite  dead  yet. 

The  most  famous  of  the  numerous  expeditions  to  discover  and 
pillage  this  figment  of  Orellana's  brain  was  organized  by  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh.  After  massacreing  the  Spaniards  who  aided  Desmond  in 
Ireland,  seizing  for  himself  twenty  thousand  acres  of  Desmond's 
lands  and  debauching  one  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  maids  of  honor,  and 
thus  rendering  himself  quite  eligible  for  an  enterprise  of  this  charac- 
ter, he  prepared  for  a  voyage  to  the  land  of  gold.  In  1595  he  set 
sail  with  five  ships.  After  spentling  several  months  in  roaming  the 
country'  between  the  Amazon  and  Orinoco,  he  returned  to  England 
with  Orellana's  tale  embellished.  In  his  "Discovery  of  the  Large, 
Rich  and  Beautiful  Empire  of  Guiana,"  he  describes  the  gilded  King 
of  this  favored  country  (el  rey  Dorado)  whose  chamberlains,  ertry 
nnyniing,  after  rubbing  his  naked  body  with  aromatic  oils,  blew  pow- 
dered gold  over  it,  through   long  sarbacansi     It  has  been  shown  in 


152  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

a  previous  work  that  Raleigh  never  had  the  least  intention  to  pros- 
pect or  mine  for  gold ;  and  that  he  was  not  even  equipped  with  the 
picks  and  shovels  which  would  form  the  most  elementary  tools  needed 
for  such  purposes;  in  short,  that  the  expedition  was  designed  to 
plunder  and  enslave  the  natives  and  not  to  prosecute  any  legitimate 
industry.  But  indeed  Raleigh  was  not  the  only  adventurer  of  this 
type.  In  the  Spanish  records  and  in  Rodway's  volume  we  find  whole 
catalogues  of  ruffians  who  had  no  word  but  "gold  "  upon  their  lips, 
no  thought  but  of  greed  and  murder  in  their  heads.  Juan  Corteso, 
Caspar  de  Sylva,  Jeronimo  Ortal,  Father  lala,  Alonzo  de  Herrera, 
above  all,  that  prince  of  monsters  Lope  de  Aquirre,  colour  the  pages 
with  the  darkest  hues  of  bloody  emprise.  As  for  Aquirre,  there  is 
no  more  terrible  story  in  all  the  history  of  the  Spanish  Main.  A  com- 
panion of  the  dashing  Pedro  de  Ursua,  he  set  out  in  the  year  1560 
to  search  the  Amazon  for  treasure  cities,  and  within  a  month  he  had 
murdered  his  captain  and  all  those  who  stood  by  him.  Two  days 
later  he  cut  the  throat  of  the  beautiful  Donna  Inez  de  Altienza,  who 
had  followed  Pedro  from  Spain  to  share  the  dangers  and  hardships 
of  his  undertaking. 

Aquirre  was  about  fifty  years  of  age,  short  of  stature  and  sparsely  built,  ill-featured, 
his  face  small  and  lean,  his  beard  black,  and  his  eyes  as  piercing  as  those  of  a  hawk. 
When  he  looked  at  any  one  he  fixed  his  gaze  sternly,  particularly  when  annoyed;  he 
was  a  noisy  talker  and  boaster,  and  when  well  supported,  very  bold  and  determined, 
but  otherwise  a  coward.  .  .  .  He  was  never  without  one  or  two  coats  of  mail  or  a 
steel  breastplate,  and  always  carried  a  sword,  dagger,  arquebuse,  or  lance.  His  sleep 
was  mostly  taken  in  the  day,  as  he  was  afraid  to  rest  at  night,  although  he  never  took 
off  his  armour  altogether,  nor  put  away  his  weapons. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  those  who  searched  for  El  Dorado  never 
found  it;  whilst  those  who  never  searched  for  it,  found  not  indeed 
El  Dorado,  but  the  only  great  gold  bearing  districts  of  America 
south  of  California.  These  were  neither  in  New  Cranada,  Terra 
Firma,  the  West  India  islands,  nor  New  Spain,  nor  indeed  in  any 
part  of  America  invaded /by  the  Spaniards;  but  in  Brazil.  After  the 
Spaniards  had  plundered  the  Indians  of  their  trinkets,  after  they  had 
worn  them  out  in  the  petty  gold  placers  of  Hispaniola,  Mexico,  the 
Isthmus,  New  Cranada  and  Peru,  after  they  had  dug  into  the  ancient 
graves  of  the  Indians  and  robbed  the  dead  of  the  ornaments  which 
had  been  devoted  by  the  hands  of  piety,  they  came  to  a  halt. '    There 

'  The  Peruvian  and  Central  American  graves  were  classified  by  those  who  dishon- 
oured them  into  "  Huacas  de  Pilares  "  and  "  Huacas  Tapadas,"  or  graves  without 
tombstones,  the  former  being  richer  than  the  latter  and  commanding  a  higher  price  in 
the  Spanish  markets! 


KL    DUkAUO.  153 

was  evidently  no  more  gold  to  be  got;  and  but  for  the  ailveniitious 
discovery  of  the  silver  of  Potosi,  they  would  probably  have  abaniloneil 
the  countries  they  had  ruined  and  permitted  the  remains  of  tiic 
native  races  to  recover  from  their  devastating  presence.  But  Potosi. 
together  with  the  subsequent  discoveries  of  rich  silver  mines  in 
Mexico,  sealed  the  fate  of  the  Indians. 

Meanwhile,  something  resembling  a  Dorado  had  been  discovered 
by  the  Portuguese  in  Brazil.  This  was  in  1573,  when  the  placers  of 
Minhas  Geraes  were  discovered  by  Sebastiao  Fernandes  Tourinho. 
A  quarter  of  a  century  later,  1595-1605,  occurred  the  great  dis- 
coveries at  Ouro  Preto.  From  first  to  last  these  mmes  produced  no 
less  a  sum  in  gold  than  ^180,000,000.  Dr.  Southey's  estimate  is 
upwards  of  ^250,000,000:  but  this  appears  to  be  excessive.  It  was 
estimated  in  18S0  that,  weight  for  weight,  Brazil  had  produced  only 
a  fourth  less  gold  than  either  California  or  Australia.  "  When  it  is 
considered  how  much  less  gold  there  was  in  the  world's  stock  of  the 
precious  metals  at  the  period  when  Brazil  threw  her  auriferous  pro- 
duct into  Europe,  than  there  was  when  California  and  Australia 
began  to  be  productive,  the  importance  of  the  Brazilian  mines  is 
seen  to  have  been  even  greater  than  that  of  the  great  placers  of  the 
present  century."" 

Among  the  smaller  placers  of  the  world  whose  importance  was 
great  enough  to  exercise  some  influence  upon  the  history  of  money 
in  America,  were  those  of  the  .Apallachian  Range  of  North  America 
which  yielded  from  first  to  last — 1824  to  1849 — about  ten  million 
dollars  in  gold.  It  was  these  mines  and  the  Russian  placers  of  the 
same  period  which  called  forth  that  remarkable  but  little  known 
treatise  of  the  illustrious  Von  Humboldt,  "The  Fluctuations  of 
Gold,"  than  which  no  more  fascinating  monograph  on  the  subject 
has  ever  been  written.'  Here  it  was,  in  North  Carolina,  that  the 
writer  enjoyed  his  early  experience  as  a  mining  engineer.  A  num- 
ber of  Spanish  relics,  such  as  spear-heads,  horse-shoes,  etc.,  of 
ancient  types,  picked  up  near  the  gold  placers  of  Salisbury,  testify 
to  the  presence  of  the  early  gold  hunters  much  farther  North  than 
they  are  commonly  supposed  to  have  ventured. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  terrible  and  pathetic  history  of  El  Dorado; 
terrible  in  respect  of  the  desolation  and  ruin  which,  in  the  pursuit  of 
gold,  the  Spaniards  wrought  upon  this  beautiful  land  and  its  innocent 

'  Del  Mar's  History  of  the  I'recions  Metals,  iSSo,  p.  124. 

*  Originally  published  in  Berlin,  1S3S;  republished  in  New  York  by  the  Cambridge 
Encyclopedia  t'ompany,  iSqcj. 


154  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

inhabitants;  pathetic  with  respect  to  the  hopeless  efforts  which  one 
good  man  among  them  made  to  avert  this  ruin  and  lead  the  natives 
by  pious  methods  into  the  fold  of  Christianity.  Those  who  would 
peruse  this  story  in  detail  should  consult  Sir  Arthur  Helps'  admirable 
work.  The  scope  of  the  present  history  compels  us  never  to  lose 
sight  of  the  precious  metals  and  their  immediate  surroundings. 

Yet  there  is  one  more  reflection  which  this  history  enforces  upon 
us  and  for  which  we  must  beg  the  reader's  indulgence.  From  the 
moment  when  America  was  discovered  by  the  Spaniards  down  to  the 
present  day,  it  does  not  seem  to  have  possessed  any  further  interest 
for  them  or  for  the  rest  of  Europe  beyond  that  of  seeing  it  exploited 
for  the  precious  metals.  The  first  rude  conquerors  who  visited  it  from 
the  older  world,  ravaged  it  for  golden  spoil;  the  race  of  men  who  fol- 
lowed afterwards,  dug  into  its  mines  and  gutted  them  of  their  precious 
contents,  only  to  transport  these  to  Europe;  the  alien  financiers  who 
to-day  are  permitted  to  influence  so  largely  the  polity  of  America, 
exercise  their  power  largely  for  the  sake  of  the  gold  it  produces.  The 
means  employed  by  the  Spaniards  was  pillage ;  by  the  Creoles,  slavery ; 
and  by  the  aliens,  who  are  permitted  to  mould  its  laws  at  the  present 
day,  a  chicanery  misnamed  "finance."  The  object  has  been  the  same 
with  all  of  them,  gold;  the  destination  of  the  gold  has  always  been 
the  same,  the  mints  of  Europe;  there  to  enrich  classes  who  are  already 
rich  and  keep  the  remote  regions  which  produced  this  wealth,  in  com- 
parative indigence.  It  is  not,  as  has  been  falsely  claimed,  the  Catholic 
religion,  which  keeps  South  America  poor,  nor  a  republican  form  of 
government  which  subjects  the  vast  resources  and  energies  of  North 
America  to  the  designs  of  the  arch-intriguants  who  govern  the  banks 
and  exchanges  of  Europe.  It  is  that  European  System  of  Money, 
which,  whether  the  coins  were  made  of  one  metal  or  two  metals, 
has  never  failed,  so  long  as  those  metals  were  gratuitously  coined 
and  free  to  be  melted  down  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  to  withdraw 
the  bulk  of  them  to  Europe  and  place  the  American  states  at  the 
mercy  of  the  European  mints  and  melting  houses  and  the  classes  who 
control  them. 

The  native  name  for  that  portion  of  the  South  American  continent 
which  stretches  from  the  Orinoco  to  Cumana  was  Paria;  whilst  from 
Cumana  to  the  Gulf  of  Venezuela  it  was  called  Cumana.  Together, 
these  districts  were  called  by  the  Spaniards,  the  Pearl  Coast,  whilst 
the  interior  portion  was  at  a  later  period  called  El  Dorado.  That 
larger  tract  of  coast  which  stretches  from  the  Amazon  to  the  Magda- 
lena,  was  called  Terra  Firma,  and  within  it  are  comprised  the  present 


Kl.    DORADO.  155 

States  of  the  three  Guianas  and  Venezuela,  it  is  described  by  the 
early  voyajjers  as  an  earthly  heaven;  indeed  Columbus  told  his  men, 
when  his  ship  was  in  the  (iulf  of  Paria,  that  he  thought  it  must  be  "a 
Continent  which  he  had  discovered,  the  same  Continent  of  the  East 
of  which  he  had  always  been  in  search;  and  that  the  waters,  (which 
we  now  know  to  be  a  branch  of  the  river  Orinoco,)  formed  one  of  the 
four  great  rivers  which  descended  from  the  garden  of  Paradise."  He 
added  that  "they  were  in  the  richest  country  of  the  world,"  a  re- 
mark, which,  it  seems,  however,  was  not  applied  to  the  fertility  of 
its  fields,  but  to  his  expectations  of  gold.  (Oviedo,  Hist.  Clen.  Ind., 
XIX,  i.) 

The  Chimay  Indians  who  inhabited  the  coasts,  were  not  savages, 
but  agriculturalists,  fishermen  and  hunters.  They  lived  in  permanent 
dwellings,  sat  upon  chairs,  dined  at  tables  and,  alas,  for  their  own 
happiness,*  they  wore  ornaments  of  gold  and  necklaces  of  pearls.  It 
was  these  trinkets  that  attracted  the  cupidity  of  the  Spaniards  and 
doomed  the  native  races  to  destruction. 

Columbus  described  these  people  as  "tall,  well  built,  and  of  very 
graceful  bearing,  with  long  smooth  hair,  which  they  covered  with  a 
beautiful  head  dress  of  worked  and  coloured  handkerchiefs,  that  ap- 
peared at  a  distance  to  be  made  of  silk."  Everywhere  he  met  with 
the  kindest  reception  and  hospitality.  "  He  found  the  men,  the  coun- 
try' and  the  products,  ecpially  admirable.  It  is  somewhat  curious  that 
he  does  not  mention  his  discovery  of  pearls  to  the  Catholic  Monarchs 
and  he  afterwards  makes  a  poor  excuse  for  this.  The  reason  I  con- 
jecture to  have  been  a  wish  to  preserve  this  knowledge  to  himself, 
that  the  fruits  of  his  enterprise  might  not  be  prematurely  snatched 
from  him.  His  shipmates,  however,  were  sure  to  disperse  the  intel- 
ligence; and  the  gains  to  be  made  on  the  Pearl  Coast  were  probably 
the  most  tempting  bait  for  future  navigators  to  follow  in  the  tract  of 
Columbus  and  complete  the  discovery  of  the  earthly  Paradise." 

The  natives  cultivated  maize,  cassaba  and  cotton,  weaving  the  latter 
into  clothing,  hammocks,  and  other  articles  of  utility.  They  even 
manufactured  a  sort  of  wine,  or  beer,  from  the  maize.  "  The  trees 
descended  to  the  sea.  There  were  houses  and  people  and  very  l)eau- 
tiful  lands  which  reminded  him  (Columbus)  from  their  beauty  and 
their  verdure,  of  the  gardens,  or  huertas,  of  Valencia  in  the  month 
of  May."  Not  only  this,  but  the  lands  were  well  cultivated,  nuiy 
labrada.      "Farms  and  populous  places  were  visible  above  the  water 

*  F.  Ci.  Squier,  cited  in  Ccntun   Magazine,  l8<;o.  p.  890. 


156  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

as  he  coasted  onwards;  and  still  the  trees  descended  to  the  sea — a 
sure  sign  of  the  general  mildness  of  the  climate,  wherever  it  occurs." 
..."  The  expedition  proceeded  onwards,  anchoring  in  the  various 
ports  and  bays  which  there  are  on  that  coast,  until  it  came  to  a  very 
beautiful  spot,  near  a  river,  where  there  were  not  only  houses,  but  places 
of  fortification.  There  were  also  gardens  of  such  beauty  that  one  of 
the  voyagers,  afterwards  giving  evidence  in  a  lawsuit  connected  with 
the  proceedings  on  that  coast,  declared  that  he  had  never  seen  a  more 
delicious  spot. "     (Helps,  II,  113.) 

Upon  this  happy  shore,  at  Paria,  Columbus  landed  in  1498,  setting 
upon  it  that  great  cross  which  was  the  symbol  of  the  sovereignty 
claimed  by  him  for  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and  should  have  also 
been  that  of  hope  and  salvation  for  the  natives.  But  from  the  mo- 
ment of  its  erection  everything  changed  for  the  worse.  The  first 
enquiries  of  the  admiral  were  for  gold;  the  next  for  pearls.  The  pro- 
ceeds of  his  voyage  in  these  coveted  objects  did  not  in  the  end 
amount  to  much,  but  they  served  to  stimulate  other  adventurers.  In 
December  of  the  same  year  the  news  of  his  discovery  reached  Spain; 
in  the  following  May,  Alonso  de  Ojeda,  started  with  an  expedition 
from  Spain  with  the  object  to  exploit  this  beautiful  land.  A  few  days 
later  another  expedition  started  with  the  same  object,  led  by  Per 
Alonso  Nino  and  Christobal  Guerra.  This  last  one  came  to  the  island 
of  Margarita  (Pearls)  where  they  procured  some  pearls  in  exchange 
for  glass-beads,  pins  and  needles.  At  Mochima  they  obtained  in  an 
hour  15  ounces  of  pearls  for  trumperies  that  cost  in  Spain  but  200 
maravedis.  At  Curiana,  on  the  Main,  they  met  with  "the  most  gra- 
cious reception,  as  if  it  were  a  meeting  of  parents  and  children." 
The  houses  were  built  of  wood  and  thatched  with  palm  leaves.  Every 
kind  of  food  was  abundant — fish,  flesh,  fowls,  and  bread  made  of  In- 
dian corn.  Markets  and  fairs  were  held,  in  which  were  displayed  all 
the  bravery  of  jars,  pitchers,  dishes,  and  porringers  of  native  manu- 
facture. But  the  Spaniards  cared  nothing  for  these,  only  for  those 
fatal  ornaments  of  "gold  made  in  the  form  of  little  birds,  frogs  and 
other  figures,  very  well  wrought."  When  the  strangers,  with  affected 
carelessness,  asked  where  "that  yellow  dirt"  came  from,  they  were 
told  Cauchieto,  some  forty  leagues  off.  Securing  what  gold  they 
could  ol)tain  at  Curiana,  the  adventurers  voyaged  to  Cauchieto,  where 
they  found  that  pearls  were  dear  and  gold  was  cheap.  At  Chichiri- 
bichi,  a  place  near  the  present  port  of  La  Guayra,  Alonso  de  Ojeda 
had  anticipated  them,  by  attacking  and  plundering  the  natives,  who 
did  not  receive  Nino's  expedition  with  the  usual  amiability.    Return- 


EL    DORADO.  157 

ing  to  Curiand  they  found  such  a  supply  of  pearls  ready  for  them, 
some  as  big  as  filberts,  that  they  purchased  as  much  as  150  marks 
weight,  at  a  cost  of  not  more  than  ten  or  1 2  ducats  worth  of  trinkets. 
In  February,  1500,  this  expedition  returned  to  Bayona  in  Galicia, 
"the  mariners  being  laden  with  pearls  as  if  they  were  carrying  bun- 
dles of  straw."  In  a  few  months  time  the  news  spread  all  over  Spain 
and  flowed  back  to  Hispaniola.  An  expedition  at  once  started  from 
that  island,  which  occupied  the  sterile  islet  of  Cubagua,  between  Mar- 
garita and  the  Main.  There  was  conducted  that  pearl  fishery  which 
afterwards  gave  its  name  to  the  Coast  of  Terra  Firnia. 

Thus  far  there  had  been  comparatively  little  friction  between  the 
Spaniards  and  Indians,  but  Hispaniola,  now  nearly  depopulated  of  the 
natives  by  the  rigours  of  the  goldmines,  was  too  much  in  need  of  new 
victims-and  too  near  to  Terra  Firma,  to  induce  the  Spaniards  to  forego 
the  advantage  of  kidnapping  the  inhabitants  of  the  Main.  In  15  12 
they  carried  off  a  cacique,  with  17  of  his  men,  to  the  mines  of  His- 
paniola. This  cruel  and  treacherous  act  was  avenged  by  the  Indians, 
who,  after  affording  the  Spaniards  an  ample  opportunity  to  return  the 
captives,  put  to  death  the  unhappy  Dominican  monks  who  had  erected 
a  pioneer  mission  on  the  Main.  In  15 18  the  Franciscans  and  Domini- 
cans of  Hispaniola,  nothing  daunted  by  the  fate  of  their  brethren, 
erected  two  new  monasteries  on  the  Pearl  Coast,  the  Indians  receiv- 
ing them  kindly.  Scarcely  had  these  amicable  arrangements  been 
made  when  a  Spaniard  named  Alonso  de  Ojeda — not  the  one  pre- 
viously mentioned — started  from  Cabagua  to  kidnap  natives  on  the 
Main.  Four  leagues  beyond  the  monasteries,  at  a  place  on  the  coast 
named  Maracapana,  Ojeda  treacherously  attacked  a  band  of  50  In- 
dians, whom  he  had  employed  to  carry  maize;  and  after  slaughtering 
a  number  of  them,  carried  the  remainder  away  in  slavery.  This  act 
roused  the  natives  of  the  coast  to.  fury.  They  attacked  the  monas- 
teries, dispersed  its  inmates,  tore  the  emblems  of  their  religion  into 
shreds  and  killed  80  of  their  companions.  Not  content  with  this,  they 
started  for  Cubagua,  where  there  were  300  Spaniards  getting  rich 
with  the  pearl  fishery,  put  the  latter  to  flight  and  plundered  their 
mushroom  city  of  New  Cadiz.  When  this  news  reached  St.  Domingo 
a  punitive  e.xpedition,  under  Ocampo.  was  organized  to  chastise  the 
Inilians.  Having  discharged  this  mission  with  cruel  fidelity,  Ocampo 
made  use  of  the  occasion  to  secure  a  large  number  of  slaves,  "carry- 
ing his  incursions  into  that  mountainous  country,  the  abode  of  the 
Tegares,"  a  place  south  of  the  present  city  of  Caraccas. 

it  was  in  the  midst  of  these  scenes  that  the  benevolent  Las  Casas 


158  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

made  that  memorable  but  vain  attempt  to  establish  peace  and  the 
Christian  religion  upon  Terra  Firma.  The  Indians  were  docile  and 
willing  enough,  but  the  Spaniards  wanted  gold  and  slaves,  objects 
which  were  irreconcilable  with  either  peace  or  religion.  Even  the 
subordinates  of  the  clerigo  could  not  forego  these  temptations;  and 
taking  advantage  of  his  absence  in  St.  Domingo,  his  lieutenant,  one 
Francisco  de  Soto,  "sent  away  the  only  two  boats  the  colony  had, 
to  traffic  for  pearls,  gold,  and  even  for  slaves."  The  result  was  an- 
other rising  of  the  Indians,  the  destruction  of  the  mission  and  the 
dispersion  of  the  Dominicans.  When  intelligence  of  these  occurrences 
reached  Las  Casas,  he  lost  heart  and  retiring  to  a  convent,  renounced 
the  Christian  world  forever. 

Freed  from  the  restraint  which  this  worthy  man  and  reformer  had 
imposed  upon  their  cupidity,  the  Spaniards  now  commenced  in  earnest 
that  dread  work  of  devastation  which  eventually  rendered  this  once 
smiling  land  a  desert.  In  1522  Jacome  Castellon  "  fought  the  In- 
dians, recovered  the  country,  restored  the  pearl  fisheries  and  filled 
Cubagua  and  even  St.  Domingo  with  slaves."  (Gomara,  Hist.  Ind., 
c.  78.) 

By  the  year  1541  the  pearl  fishery  had  ceased  entirely,  or  else  had 
ceased  to  be  productive,  and  we  now  again  hear  of  El  Dorado,  which 
was  the  name  mentioned  by  the  governor  of  Cubagua  as  that  of  an 
interior  province  of  Terra  Firma,  where  gold  and  slaves  were  to  be 
had  in  plenty.  In  the  same  year  an  expedition  with  these  objects  in 
view  was  started  from  Cubagua  under  the  leadership  of  Ortal,  which 
moved  eastward  along  the  coast  and  there  "  commenced  a  hunt,  that 
led  the  Spaniards  through  the  wildest  tract  of  country  which  Belzoni, 
(who  was  present  and  writes  the  story,)  thinks  that  foxes  would  have 
hesitated  to  enter.  The  cruel  hunters,  like  wild  beasts,  made  their 
forays  more  by  night  than  by  day,  and  in  the  course  of  a  march  of  a 
hundred  miles  they  succeeded  in  capturing  240  Indians,  males  and 
females,  children  and  adults."  Returning  to  the  coast,  the  Spaniards 
adopted  another  mode  of  planting  religion  and  civilization  in  El  Do- 
rado. "When  the  Indians  came  down  to  fish,  the  Spaniards  rushed 
out  of  their  hiding  places  and  generally  contrived  to  capture  the  fish- 
ers, who  appear  to  have  been  mostly  women  and  children."  (Bel- 
zoni, Hist.  Novi  Orbis,  I,  ii.) 

One  of  these  expeditions  after  travelling  700  miles  returned  to 
Maracapana,  bringing  no  fewer  than  4, 000  slaves.  These  represented 
but  a  portion  of  the  natives  who  were  torn  from  their  homes;  for 
many  of  them,  who  were  found  to  be  unequal  to  the  journey,  were 


KL    DORADO.  >59 

put  to  death  on  the  road.  "That  miserable  band  of  slaves,"  wrote 
Heizt)ni,  "was  iiuleed  a  foul  and  melancholy  spectacle  to  those  who 
beheld  it;  men  and  women  debilitated  by  huiij^er  and  misery,  their 
bodies  naked,  lacerated  and  mutilated.  You  mi.^ht  behoUl  the  wretched 
mothers  lost  in  grief  and  tears,  tlra<;!^in<;  two  or  three  children  after 
them,  or  carrying  them  upon  their  necks  antl  shoulders,  and  the  whole 
band  connected  together  by  ropes  or  iron  chains  around  their  necks 
or  arms  anil  hands.  "  These  unhappy  victims  were  carrieil  to  Cr.bagua, 
where  a  fifth  of  their  numb^;r  was  taken  for  the  king  of  Spain  and 
branded  with  the  initial  of  his  name.  King  Charles  the  First  of  Sjiain 
and  the  Fifth  of  Oermany,  both  of  glorious  memory.  "The  great 
bulk  of  the  captives  were  then  e.xchanged  for  wine,  corn  and  other 
necessaries;  nor  did  these  accursed  marauders  hesitate  to  make  a 
saleable  commodity  of  that  for  which  a  man  should  be  ready  to  lay 
down  his  own  life  in  defence — namely,  the  chiUl  that  is  about  to  be 
born  to  him."     (Helps,  quoting  the  words  of  Helzoni.) 

Such  were  the  crimes  committed  in  El  Doratlo  to  obtain  the  gold 
of  Hispaniola  and  St.  Domingo.  When  Columbus  first  visited  the 
Coast  of  Terra  Firma,  namely,  in  1498,  it  was  a  scene  of  fertility  and 
happiness.  "When  1  came  there,"  says  Belzoni,  in  1541,  "it  was 
nearlv  reduced  to  a  solitarv  desert."     Yet  less  than  ^00  miles  fro 


)m 


the  scene  of  this  wickedness  lay  one  of  the  richest  golil  mines  that 
the  world  ever  saw,  the  "Callao. "  Hut  the  Spaniards  did  not  visit 
El  Dorado  to  prospect  or  dig  for  gold;  they  c;'.me  to  plunder  gold 
and  to  extort  it  from  slavery. 

The  only  region  of  Terra  Firma  which,  tlown  to  the  present  time, 
has  proved  to  contain  gold  in  any  considerable  cpiantity  and  acces- 
sible to  the  natives,  before  the  introilmtion  of  European  arts,  that 
is  to  say,  placer  gold,  is  in  Venezuela  (or  (iuiana)  in  the  valley  of  the 
Cuyuni,  an  affluent  of  the  Essequibo.  'I'his  is  the  territory  in  dis- 
pute between  Venezuela  and  Great  Britain,  the  origin  of  the  so  much 
vaunted  arbitration  treaty  of  1897.  The  air  is  humiil,  the  climate  is 
fatal  to  whites,  and  for  their  labour  the  Indians  demand  si.xty  cents 
to  one  dollar,  or  2s.  6d.  to  4s.  per  day  in  gold,  beside  certain  allow- 
ances of  food  and  raiment.  The  total  product  at  the  present  time 
is  about  one  million  ilollars  a  year,  at  a  cost  of  about  one  and  a  (juar- 
ter  millions. 

Whilst  e.xploring  the  countries  of  the  Upper  Orinoco  in  the  early 
part  of  the  present  century,  Haron  von  Humboldt  was  informed  that 
the  placers  of  that  region  were  "  the  classical  soil  of  the  Dorado  of 
Parima. "    This  is  quite  possible. 


l6o  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

The  ''  Callao  "  mine  is  in  the  Caratal  district,  department  of  Roscio, 
State  of  Guiana,  Republic  of  Venezuela.  The  district  is  about  i6o 
miles  E.  S.  E.  of  Ciudad  Bolivar,  or  Angostura,  on  the  Orinoco,  and 
it  contains,  besides  the  "Callao,"  numerous  other  quartz  mines,  most 
of  which,  although  productive,  have  failed  to  be  profitable.  The 
mines,  whose  surface  had  long  been  worked  as  placers,  were  opened 
for  quartz  about  the  year  1866.  Commencing  in  that  year  with  a 
product  of  15,000  ounces,  this  gradually  increased  in  1880  to  130,000 
ounces,  about  one-half  of  the  whole  product  (960,000  ounces)  hav- 
ing been  obtained  from  the  "'Callao"  alone.  According  to  the  Re- 
port of  the  British  Consul  at  Ciudad  Bolivar,  for  1880,  gold  is  the 
chief  and,  it  may  be  said,  almost  the  only  industry  of  the  State  of 
Guiana,  on  which  both  public  and  private  incomes  more  or  less  de- 
pend. "Absorbing,  as  it  does,  almost  all  the  labour  of  the  state, 
by  offering  superior  inducements  to  labourers,  it  renders  every  other 
enterprise  hopeless.  Gold-mining  is  the  sole  pre-occupation  of  all 
minds.  In  this  vice-consular  district,  as  an  industry,  it  only  dates, 
it  may  be  said,  from  1866,  when  companies  were  formed  for  working 
this  hitherto  undeveloped  source  of  wealth.  But  whether  from  the 
enormous  expenses  which  have  been  incurred  in  importing  and  setting 
up  suitable  machinery,  the  transporting  of  it  to  Caratal,  a  distance 
of  about  150  miles  from  Port  Las  Tablas,  by  bullock-wagons,  or  the 
exceptional  dearness  of  labour,  provisions,  and  fuel,  which  latter  has 
to  be  procured  from  the  adjacent  forests  at  great  outlay,  for  the  work- 
ing of  steam  machinery,  the  fact  is  that  until  now,  only  one,  the 
Callao  Company,  has  returned  dividends  to  its  shareholders."  Since 
the  year  above  mentioned,  the  produce  of  the  district  has  greatly 
declined. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


DARIKN. 


Ojeda  and  Nicuesa  summon  tke  Indios  to  supply  gold — Unable  to  do  so,  they  are 
tortured,  robbed  and  enslaved — Miserable  end  of  the  Spaniards — Cruelties  of  Vasco 
Nunez  de  Balbao — Discovery  of  the  Pacific  Ocean — Religion  and  plunder — The 
Pearl  islands — Gold  fisher)' — Indios  thrown  to  the  dogs — Frightful  mortality  of  the 
natives — Cruelties  of  Ayora — The  bloodhounds'  share  of  spoil. 

LET  US  now  transfer  the  scene  to  the  Isthmus  of  Darien.  This 
country  had  been  discovered  by  Columbus  in  1502.  In  1509 
Ojeda  was  appointed  governor.  In  that  year  this  adventurer  sailed 
from  San  Domingo  with  two  ships,  two  brigantines,  300  men  and 
twelve  horses;  his  object  being  to  found  a  colony  at  Darien,  and 
prosecute  the  search  for  gold.  He  failed  in  the  enterprise,  and  was 
supplanted  by  one  Enciso,  who,  with  another  expedition,  arrived  at 
Darien  in  15 10.  The  Indios,  as  usual,  received  the  white  men  kindly. 
Being  asked  for  gold — always  the  first  demand  of  the  "heaven-de- 
scended "  strangers — the  Indios  gave  up  all  they  had,  which  of  course 
was  not  much,  seeing  that  they  had  none  in  use  as  money,  no  dig- 
gings of  any  account  wherefrom  to  obtain  more,  and  no  knowledge 
of  mining.  The  white  men  then  asked  them  for  more  gold.  Being 
unable  to  comply,  their  cacique  was  tortured  and  their  town  captured 
and  pillaged.  Some  golden  trinkets  found  among  their  simple  effects 
furnished  a  presumption  that  they  knew  whence  to  obtain  more  of  the 
coveted  metal.  This  cruel  suspicion  sealed  their  fate;  many  of  them 
were  tortured  and  foully  put  to  death;  but  with  little  avail  to  their 
masters,  for  in  fact  no  more  gold  was  obtained.  Enciso's  expedition 
proving  as  unsuccessful  as  Ojeda's  (probably  for  the  same  reason:  his 
failure  to  get  gold),  he  was  supplanted  by  Nicuesa,  who  also  failed, 
and  the  latter  was  followed  by  Vasco  Nufiez  de  Balbao.  Meanwhile 
Ojeda  ilied  in  poverty,  and  Nicuesa  perished  in  a  desert.  Of  several 
hundred  gold-seekers  only  seventy  odd  remained. 

The  first  move  of  Vasco  Nuftez,  after  his  arrival  at  Darien,  was  to 
send  seven  men  to  the  province  of  Cueva  to  search  for  gold.  .\  wretch 
named  Juan  Alonso,  who,  a  year  and  a  half  before,  had  found  refuge 


l62  HISTORY    OF    THE    FRECIOUS    METALS. 

and  relief  from  starvation  among  the  compassionate  and  forgiving 
Indios,  now  delivered  his  benefactors  over  to  Vasco  Nunez,  who,  with 
130  armed  men,  had  entered  their  territory.  Vasco  Nunez  pillaged 
their  town,  devastated  their  country,  and  dragged  their  cacique  to 
Darien,  there  to  be  used,  poor  simpleton,  as  an  instrument  to  point 
the  way  to  other  native  settlements  where  gold  might  be  captured. 
Some  of  these  settlements  were  in  the  province  of  Comegra.  Enter- 
ing this  province  and  treating  it  with  the  utmost  cruelty,  the  Span- 
iards obtained  in  all  4,000  pesos  of  gold,  which  seemed  so  great  a 
prize — they  thought  not  of  the  thousands  of  lives  which  they  had 
cruelly  sacrificed  to  obtain  it — that  forthwith  they  quarrelled  amongst 
themselves  over  its  division.  Observing  this,  the  son  of  the  cacique 
Comogre  dashed  the  gold  disdainfully  to  the  ground,  and  told  the 
Spaniards  that  if  that  was  the  object  of  their  expeditions,  and  their 
cruel  treatment  of  the  Indios,  he  could  show  them  where  "they 
could  get  their  bellies  full  of  i^  "  The  land  he  spoke  of  was  six  suns' 
journey  to  the  southward.      He  meant  Peru. 

Either  supposing  that  Comogre's  son  wished  to  save  his  people  by 
leading  the  Spaniards  so  far  away  from  their  fort  and  supplies  as  to 
endanger  their  safety,  or  being  unwilling  to  hazard  so  long  a  journey, 
the  latter  failed  to  act  upon  this  suggestion.  Upon  one  of  them, 
however,  the  statement  of  Comogre's  son  made  a  deep  impression, 
and  led  to  the  most  important  and  extraordinary  results.  This  man's 
name  was  Francisco  Pizarro,  who  at  that  time  was  one  of  the  adven- 
turers in  Vasco  Nunez's  band. 

Vasco  Nunez  returned  to  Darien,  whence  he  sallied  forth  at  inter- 
vals to  pillage  the  country.  His  plan  of  operations  was  to  put  the 
Indios  to  the  torture,  make  them  reveal  the  villages  where  there  was 
any  gold,  and  at  night  to  attack  these  villages,  in  order  to  secure  the 
coveted  prize.  He  hanged  thirty  caciques,  destroyed  a  vast  number 
of  lives  and  devastated  the  valleys  of  the  Isthmus  in  every  direction. 
Everywhere  he  sought  for  gold,  asked  for  gold,  tortured  for  gold  and 
murdered  for  gold.  Down  to  15 12  he  had  secured  but  75,000  pesos; 
for  in  that  year  the  king's  Fifth  for  the  whole  period  of  the  occu- 
pation of  Darien  was  remitted  to  Spain,  and  this  amounted  to  only 
15,000  pesos. 

Not  only  did  the  Spaniards  maltreat  the  Indios,  and  quarrel  among 
themselves  about  the  spoil,  they  even  mutinied  against  their  leaders. 
In  15 13  "they  accused  their  commander  of  unfairness  in  this  divi- 
sion, and  as  there  was  a  sum  of  10,000  castellanos  just  about  to  be 
divided,  this  was  the  cause,  or  they  made  it  the  pretext,  of  their  in- 


DARIKN.  163 

tention  to  seize  upon  him."     \'asco  Nunez  escaped  this  ihinyer  unly 
by  relinquishing  his  share  of  the  booty. 

In  this  same  year  reinforcements  were  received  from  Spain  of  two 
more  ships  and  250  men,  whereupon  Vasco  Nunez  startetl  with  190  of 
the  latter  to  cross  the  mountains,  hunt  for  more  gold,  and  perhaps 
reach  the  South  Sea,  of  whose  existence  the  Indios  had  apprised  him. 
Rambling  through  the  humid  defiles  of  the  Isthmus,  he  comes  upon 
many  new  settlements,  destroys  a  great  many  lives,  on  one  occasion 
no  less  than  600,  and  captures  a  gratifying  amount  of  golden  trinkets. 
The  scenes  upon  this  journey  remind  eye-witnesses  of  tiie  shambles. 
On  September  25th  he  beholds  the  Pacific  Ocean  from  the  summit  of 
the  mountains,  lifts  up  his  hands,  steeped  in  innocent  blood,  to  re- 
turn thanks  for  this  famous  discovery,  reminds  his  hearers  of  the  gold 
which  Comogre's  son  had  advised  them  was  to  be  found  beyonil  this 
sea,  and  prf)mises  to  lead  them  to  this  treasure. 

Vasco  then  descends  the  Sierras,  kills  a  few  hundred  Indios  and 
gets  400  pesos  more  of  gold.  Hearing  of  a  temple  full  of  gold  in  the 
caciquedoin  of  Dabaybe,  he  proceeds  thither  and  pillages  it.  He 
conquers  Coquera  and  demands  gold;  he  declares  the  object  of  his 
expedition  to  be  gold,  to  enable  the  kings  of  Castile  to  propagate 
the  true  faith.  A  veeJor  attends  every  expedition  to  secure  the  king's 
Fifth  of  the  gold.  After  robbing  the  cacique  Tumaco,  who  yields  to 
him  not  only  gold,  but  also  pearls,  Vasco  writes  to  the  king  of  Spain 
concerning  the  riches  of  Peru  (of  which  he  now  hears  again  from 
Tumaco),  and  he  prepares  to  return  to  Darien  with  many  gold-hunt- 
ing projects  in  his  cruel  miiul. 

The  simple  caciques  shed  tears  at  his  departure.  On  his  way  he 
captures  the  cajcique  Pacra,  who,  because  he  fails  to  produce  gold,  he 
throws  to  the  dogs  to  be  torn  to  pieces.  He  captures  the  cacique 
Tubanamd,  whom  he  threatens  with  death  if  he  does  not  procure 
gold,  and  whom  he  releases  on  tlie  payment  of  6,000  pesos;  all  that 
the  poor  wretch  could  find  in  his  petty  dominions.  Vasco  himself 
then  questions  him  as  to  the  origin  of  this  gold.  Trying  the  gravel 
of  the  streams  he  finds  it  to  be  auriferous,  and  orders  Tumanamd  to 
collect  more  gold  on  pain  of  death.  He  then  departs  for  Darien  (this 
is  in  15 14)  and  reaches  the  port,  where  he  fintls  two  more  ships  from 
Spain,  awaiting  his  orders.  In  his  letter  to  the  king,  accompanied  by 
rich  presents,  Vasco  states  that  he  has  not  lost  a  man  in  this  expe- 
dition. He  asks  for  more  men  in  order  to  penetrate  a  ccnintry  of  the 
Indios  close  to  the  South  Sea,  where  gold  can  be  got  by  fishing  for 
it  with  nets;  and  the  king  responds  to  this  exciting  intelligence  by 


164  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

sending  out  an  imposing  expedition  to  exploit  tliis  newly-found  coun- 
try of  Panama. 

This  expedition  consists  of  a  new  governor  (Pedrarias),  a  new  veedor 
(Oviedo,  the  subsequent  historian),  twelve  or  fifteen  vessels,  and 
1,500  adventurers,  amongst  them  "not  a  small  number  of  avaricious 
old  men,"  who  were  anxious  to  take  part  in  the  gold-fishery;  besides 
several  nobles  and  priests.  The  latter  were  furnished  with  a  Royal 
Proclamation,  or  Requerimiento,  addressed  to  the  Indios,  claiming 
their  lands,  gold  and  services,  as  vassals,  and  as  the  property  of  the 
Pope  and  the  king.  This  proclamation  was  to  be  read  to  the  Indios 
on  all  occasions  before  giving  them  battle.  The  Spaniards  used  to 
read  it  to  themselves  and  the  trees,  as  they  marched  in  ambush  upon 
the  devoted  natives.  "Entre  si  leian  el  Requerimiento  a  los  arboles. " 
The  following  is  the  text  of  the  "  Requerimiento, "  as  furnished  by 
Dr.  Palacios  Rubios,  jurist  and  member  of  the  Royal  Council  for 
the  Indies: 

"  On  the  part  of  the  King,  Don  Fernando,  and  of  Dona  Juana,  his 
daughter,  Queen  of  Castile  and  Leon,  subduers  of  barbarous  nations, 
we,  their  humble  servitors,  hereby  notify  and  make  known  to  you, 
as  best  we  can,  that  the  Lord  our  God,  Living  and  Eternal,  created 
the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  also  one  man  and  one  woman,  of 
whom  you  and  we,  and  all  mankind,  were  and  are  the  descendants, 
as  well  as  all  those  who  come  after  us.  But  on  account  of  the  mul- 
titude which  has  sprung  from  this  man  and  woman  in  the  five  thou- 
sand years  since  the  world  was  created,  it  was  necessary  that  some 
men  should  go  one  way  and  some  another,  and  that  they  should  be 
divided  into  many  kingdoms  and  provinces;  for  in  one  alone  they 
could  not  be  sustained. 

Of  all  these  nations  God  our  Lord  gave  the  charge  to  one  man, 
named  St.  Peter,  that  he  should  be  Lord  and  Superior  of  all  man- 
kind, who  should  obey  him.  and  that  he  should  be  the  head  of  the 
whole  human  race,  wherever  men  should  live,  and  under  whatever 
law,  sect,  or  belief  they  should  be;  and  the  Lord  gave  the  world  to 
St.  Peter  for  his  kingdom  and  jurisdiction. 

And  the  Lord  commanded  him  to  place  his  seat  in  Rome,  as  the 
spot  most  fitting  from  which  to  rule  the  world;  he  also  permitted  him 
to  have  his  seat  in  any  other  part  of  the  world,  and  to  judge  and  go- 
vern both  Christians,  Moors,  Jews,  Gentiles,  and  all  other  sects. 
This  office  of  Peter  was  called  Pontifex  JNIaximus,  or  the  Pope,  as  if 
to  say  Great  and  Admirable  Father  and  Governorof  men.  Men  who 
lived  in  that  time  obeyed  St.  Peter  and  took  him  for  Lord,  King,  and 
Superior  of  the  Universe;  so  also  have  they  regarded  the  others,  who 
after  him  have  been  elected  to  the  Pontificate,  and  so  h?s  it  been 
continued  even  till  now,  and  so  will  it  continue  till  the  end  of  the 
world.  One  of  these  Pontiffs  who  succeeded  St.  Peter  as  Lord  of  the 
world  in  the  dignity  and  office  before  mentioned,  made  Donation  of 


DARIEN. 

these  Isles  and  Terra  Finna  and  all  contained  therein  to  the  afore- 
said Kintjf  Fernando  and  (^iicen  Jiiana  aiul  to  their  representatives, 
our  Lords,  as  is  shown  in  certain  writings  upon  the  subject,  which 
writings  you  may  examine  if  you  wish. 

Thus  their  Highnesses  are  the  rightful  Kings  and  Lords  of  these 
Isles  and  Terra  Firma  by  virtue  of  this  Donation.  Some  Isles,  in- 
deed, almost  all  those  to  whom  these  presents  have  been  notified,  have 
acknowledged  and  done  homage  to  their  Highnesses,  as  Lortis  and 
Kings,  in  the  way  that  subjects  ought  to  do — namely,  with  alacrity 
and  good  will  and  without  remonstrance  or  delay,  as  soon  as  they 
were  informed  of  the  aforesaid  circumstances. 

And  also  they  received  and  obeyed  the  priests  whom  their  High- 
nesses sent  to  preach  to  them  and  to  teach  them  our  Holy  Faith ; 
and  these  of  their  own  free  will,  without  any  reward  or  condition, 
have  become  Christians,  and  remained  so;  and  their  Highnesses  have 
joyfully  and  benignantly  received  them,  and  also  have  commanded 
them  to  be  treated  as  their  subjects  and  vassals;  and  you,  too,  are 
held  and  t)bliged  to  do  the  same.  Wherefore,  as  best  we  can,  we  ask 
and  require  you  that  you  do  consider  what  we  have  said  to  you,  and 
that  you  take  the  time  that  shall  be  necessary  to  understand  and  de- 
liberate upon  it,  and  that  you  do  acknowledge  tlie  Church  as  the 
Mistress  and  Superior  of  the  whole  world  (por  Senora  y  Superiora 
del  Universal  Mundo),  and  the  high  priest  called  the  Pope,  and  in 
his  name  and  stead  the  King  Don  Fernando  and  Queen  Dona  Juana, 
as  superiors  and  lords  and  kings  of  these  Isles  and  Terra  Firma,  by 
virtue  of  the  said  Donation,  and  that  you  consent  and  agree  that 
these  religious  fathers  should  declare  and  preach  to  you  the  afore- 
said. If  you  do  so,  you  will  do  well,  and  that  which  you  are  reciuired 
to  do  to  their  Highnesses,  and  we,  in  their  name,  will  receive  you  in 
all  love  and  charity,  and  shall  leave  you  your  wives,  and  your  chil- 
dren, and  your  lands,  free,  without  servitude,  that  you  may  do  with 
them  and  with  yourselves  freely  that  which  you  like  and  think  best, 
and  you  shall  not  be  compelled  to  turn  Christians,  unless  you  your- 
selves, when  informed  of  the  truth,  should  wish  to  be  converted  to 
our  Holy  Catholic  Faith,  as  almost  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  rest  of 
the  Isles  have  done.  And  besides  this,  their  Highnesses  award  you 
many  privileges  and  exempii(;ns  and  will  grant  you  many  benefits. 
Hut,  if  you  do  not  do  this,  and  maliciously  make  delay  in  it,  1  certify 
to  you  that,  with  the  help  of  God.  we  shall  forcibly  enter  into  your 
country,  and  shall  make  war  against  you  in  all  ways  and  manners 
that  we  can,  and  shall  subject  you  to  the  yoke  and  obedience  of  the 
Roman  Church  and  of  their  Highnesses;  and  shall  take  you  and  your 
wives  and  your  clnUlren,  and  shall  make  slaves  of  them,  and  as  such, 
shall  sell  and  dispose  of  them  as  their  Highnesses  may  command;  and 
we  shall  take  your  projierty,  and  shall  do  you  all  the  injury  and  dam- 
age that  we  can.  as  vassals  who  disobey  and  refuse  to  acknowledge 
their  lord  and  resist  and  thwart  him;  and  we  protest  tiiat  tlie  deatns 
and  h)sses  which  shall  accrue  from  this  are  your  fault,  and  not  that  of 
their  Highnesses,  nor  ours,  nor  of  these  noble  cavaliers  whoaccom- 


1 66  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

pany  us.  And  to  prove  that  we  have  proclaimed  this  to  you  and  duly 
made  this  Requisition,  the  Imperial  Notary'  here  present  will  affix 
hereunto  his  certificate,  in  writing,  and  the  rest  who  are  present  will 
be  witnesses  subscribing  to  this  Requisition." 

The  new  gold  fishing  expedition  arrived  at  Darien  in  15 14,  where- 
upon Vasco  Nunez  turned  over  the  government  to  Pedrarias,  giving 
him  at  the  same  time  an  account  of  the  land  and  his  own  adminis- 
tration. The  native  population  numbered  two  millions;  the  moun- 
tains and  streams  contained  gold.  Pearls  were  to  be  found  at  the 
Rich  Isle,  a  rock  in  the  Bay  of  Panama.  Vasco  Nunez  also  reported 
that  his  force  consisted  of  450  men.  Marauding  parties  were  at  once 
organized  by  Pedrarias  to  pillage  the  adjacent  countries;  but  before 
they  could  set  forth,  the  seething  and  humid  climate  of  the  Isthmus, 
coupled  with  a  lack  of  provisions  adequate  for  so  great  a  number 
of  persons  as  were  under  his  command,  combined  to  very  nearly 
destroy  the  whole  party.  In  less  than  a  month  there  perished  700 
Spaniards,  who  thus  contributed  another  quota  of  lives  towards  the 
disastrous  search  for  gold. 

"  Men  clad  in  silks  and  brocades  absolutely  perished  of  hunger,  and 
might  be  seen  feeding  like  cattle  upon  herbage.  One  of  the  principal 
hidalgos  went  through  the  streets  saying  that  he  was  perishing  of 
hunger,  and  in  sight  of  the  whole  town,  dropt  down  dead."  The  con- 
dition of  despair  and  ferocity  to  which  these  gold-hunters  were  now 
reduced  may  be  easily  imagined.      They  were  ready  for  any  cruelty. 

An  expedition  was  sent  along  the  coast, under  "Juan  de  Ayora  with 
400  men  in  a  ship  and  three  caravels,  to  get  gold,"  and  provisions. 
The  friendly  caciques  Comogre,  Poncha,  and  Pocorosa,  "came  with 
their  gold  to  this  new  Spanish  chief;  but  their  people  were  harassed 
and  made  slaves,  and  their  wives  were  carried  off."  The  same  cruel 
and  piratical  acts  were  visited  upon  the  hapless  Tubanama. 

The  licentiate  Zuazo  thus  describes  Ayora's  method  of  dealing 
with  one  of  the  caciques,  whom  Vasco  Nunez  had  previously  terrified 
into  the  condition  called  "friendly."  The  Indios  received  Ayora 
with  hospitality,  providing  roast  beef,  game,  bread  and  wine,  no  small 
evidences  of  civilization.  After  dinner,  Ayora  sent  for  his  host,  the 
cacique,  and  ordered  him  to  bring  gold,  on  pain  of  being  burnt  or 
thrown  to  the  bloodhounds.  The  cacique  sent  for  the  little  gold 
which  could  be  obtained  by  massing  together  the  paltry  trinkets 
of  his  tribe,  and  presented  it  to  Ayora.  The  latter  being  dissatisfied, 
demands  more,  and  seizing  the  cacique  ties  him  up  and  compels  him 

'  A  notary  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 


DARIEN.  167 

to  order  his  people  to  make  a  furihtr  searcli.  This  being  done,  a  ftw 
more  trinkets  are  added  to  the  fatal  store.  Ayora,  still  insatiate, 
thereupon  orders  the  unhappy  cacique  to  be  burnt  alive  before  his 
eyes,  and  this  was  actually  dt)ne  in  sight  of  the  miserable  natives,  his 
followers.  By  this  and  similar  means  Ayora  amassed  together  a  large 
amount  of  gold,  though  he  never  got  back  with  it  alive;  for  he  and 
his  whole  force  were  surprised  and  cut  off  by  the  outraged  and  in- 
dignant Indios.  In  these  transactions  the  lives  of  400  Spaniards,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  say  how  many  natives,  were  sacrificed. 

Before  Ayora's  defeat  was  known  at  Darien,  Hurtado  set  forth  to 
inquire  about  him.  and  on  his  way  kidnapped  100  peaceable  and  in- 
offensive Indios,  whom  he  reduced  to  slavery  and  carried  off  to 
Darien,  where  they  were  divided  among  the  Spaniards,  six  each  to 
the  governor  and  bishop,  and  fcnir  to  the  treasurer,  etc. 

Oviedo,  an  eye-witness,  informs  the  king  of  the  extortion  and  dis- 
honesty of  the  bishops  and  priests  in  these  words,  "  Quanto  estorbo 
el  obispo,  e  sus  clerigos,  quan  e.xentos,  e  deshonestos. "  Bernal  Diaz 
also  informs  us  that  for  the  frightful  atrocities  committed  in  Mexico 
under  Cortes,  the  Pope  of  Rome  offered  for  sale  indulgences  sent  by 
the  hand  of  a  certain  friar  named  Pedro  de  Aria,  who  so  managed 
his  business  that  in  a  few  months  he  amassed  great  riches,  which  he 
remitted  to  Spain.  "  Traxo  unas  Bulas  de  Senor  S.  Pedro,  y  con 
ellas  nos  componian,  si  algo  eramos  en  cargo  en  las  guerras  en  que 
andavamos;  por  nianera  que  en  pocos  meses  el  fraile  fue  rico  y  com- 
puesto  a  Castilla. "  In  Hurtatlo's  expedition,  the  king's  Fifth  (twenty 
slaves)  was  not  forgotten.  These  slaves  were  sold  at  auction  and 
branded  for  exportation,  to  work  in  the  gold  mines  of  Hispaniola. 
Even  the  dogs  got  their  share  of  the  spoil;  for  be  it  known  that  to 
the  owners  of  certain  ferocious  dogs  which  accompanied  these  expe- 
ditions was  accorded  a  share  of  the  spoil  ecpial  to  that  given  to  a  foot 
soldier.  Oviedo  says  that  Vasco  Nunez  owned  a  dog,  named  Leon- 
fico,  who  earned  fur  him  in  this  way  upwards  of  a  thousand  crowns. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


Murderous  expeditions — Morales  captures  the  native  women  and  stabs  them  to 
death  on  the  march — 'Pizarro — Espinosa  stabs  or  throws  to  the  hounas  40,000  victims 
and  brands  2,000  others — Vasco  Nunez  de  Balbao  maizes  a  partnership  with  Pedrarias 
to  search  for  gold  on  the  Pacific — He  builds  four  vessels  at  Darien,  transports  them 
in  pieces  across  the  mountains  to  Panama,  and  ravages  the  Pacific  coast — The 
partners  fall  out  and  Pedrarias  orders  Vasco  Nunez  to  be  executed. 

MANY  similar  expeditions  are  sent  out  by  Pedrarias;  among 
them,  one  under  Becerra.  This  captain  comes  back  laden 
with  gold,  and  is  accompanied  by  captives  taken  by  force  from  friendly 
caciques,  and  branded  as  slaves.  From  one  cacique  he  takes  all  his 
daughters,  three  or  four  in  number,  whom  he  uses  as  concubines; 
another  cacique  he  burns  alive  for  bringing  an  unsatisfactory  amount 
of  gold,  and  so  on,  and  so  on.  Morales,  another  captain,  goes  with 
eighty  men  to  the  Isle  of  Pearls.  He  steals  all  the  desirable  females 
from  a  native  town  ;  kills  a  vast  number  of  the  men,  and  throws  twenty 
caciques  to  his  dogs,  who  tear  them  to  pieces,  and  eat  their  quivering 
bodies.  The  injured  Indios  pursue  him  on  his  return;  when  Morales, 
to  divert  them,  and  quicken  his  retreat,  commits  an  abominable  act. 
At  intervals  on  the  march  he  stabs  the  women  whom  he  has  ravished, 
and  thus  puts  to  death  another  ninety  or  one  hundred  persons. 
Even  Vasco  Nuiiez  himself,  one  of  the  crudest  of  men,  speaks  of  this 
as  the  vilest  deed  ever  heard  of.  Oviedo  stigmatizes  it  as  Herodian. 
Pizarro  was  in  this  expedition,  and  may  have  derived  from  it  some  of 
those  sinister  views  of  policy  which  he  afterwards  carried  out  in  Peru. 
One  of  these  views  was  that  it  was  permitted  by  the  Church  not  to 
keep  faith  with  heretics. 

Badajoz  now  goes  out  with  a  gold  foraging  expedition.  He  obtains 
80,000  castellanos  of  gold,  and  loses  the  whole  of  it  through  an  In- 
dian surprise.  Espinosa  next  tries  his  fortune  at  gold-hunting.  On  this 
occasion,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  we  learn  some- 
thing definite  and  immediate  concerning  the  cost  of  gold  obtained  by 
conquest.     In  Espinosa's  expedition  there  was  a  Franciscan  monk, 


PANAMA.  169 

named  Francisco  de  San  Roman.  After  this  priest  returned  to  Spain, 
and  while  in  the  Dominican  College  of  San  Tomds  of  Seville,  whither 
he  had  retired  in  disgust  at  the  world,  he  stated  that  he  had  seen  with 
his  own  eyes,  killed  by  the  sword,  or  thrown  to  savage  dogs,  in  this 
"murderous"  expedition  of  Espinosa's,  above  40,000 souls.  "Que 
habia  visto  por  sus  ojos  matar  a  espada  y  echar  a  perros  bravos  en 
este  viaje  de  Espinosa,  sobre  cuarenta  mil  dnimas. "  In  addition  to 
this,  Espinosa  brought  into  Darien  from  the  same  expedition  2,000 
Iiidios,  whom  he  branded  for  shipment  as  slaves  to  Hispaniola,  all  of 
whom  perished  in  a  short  time,  some  at  Darien,  some  on  the  voyage, 
and  the  rest  in  the  mines  of  Hispaniola.  The  net  proceeds  of  this 
foray  were  80,000  pesos  of  gold,  so  that  the  immediate  cost  of  every 
two  pesos  was  more  than  one  human  life.  It  would  be  curious  to 
learn  how  the  fashionable  politico-economical  maxim  that  "value 
is  determined  by  cost  of  production"  can  be  reconciled  with  such  an 
instance  of  the  cost  of  gold  by  conquest. 

Notwithstanding  these  experiences,  the  Crown  of  Sixiin  still  be- 
lieved in  the  advantage  of  searching  for  gold  in  the  Indies.  Yet  the 
failure  of  the  Darien  colony  was  so  complete  that  the  gold  smelting 
house  at  Darien  had  to  be  closed  for  want  of  supplies;  and  it  was  so 
obvious,  that  the  failure  was  acknowledged  even  by  statesmen  in 
Spain,  who  were  too  remote  from  the  scene  of  operations  to  learn 
much  about  the  cost  or  the  nature  of  gold  forays,  and  were  always 
the  last  to  abandon,  because  they  reaped  the  most  from,  these  expe- 
ditions. They  said  that  the  colony  had  led  to  nothing — meaning  no 
gold;  and  had  founded  nothing — meaning  the  abandoned  Casa  de  la 
Fundicion  or  smelting  house. 

Vasco  Nunez  now  comes  to  the  front  again.  He  conducts  a  godl- 
hunting  expedition  to  the  country  of  Dabaybe,  but  without  success, 
except  that  of  perceiving  good  signs  of  gold.  Shortly  after  this,  his 
appointment  as  Adelantado  comes  from  Spain,  and  he  is  granted  the 
government  of  Panama.  From  this  place  he  may  be  able  to  reach 
the  wonilerful  land  of  gold  mentioned  by  Comogre's  son,  and  re- 
ported by  Vasco  in  his  earlier  letters  to  the  king.  This  is  the  ex- 
press and  only  real  object  of  the  appointment;  it  is  the  express  and 
only  object  of  the  expedition. 

Vasco  first  effects  an  understanding  with  Pedrarias,  whose  daugh- 
ter, in  Spain,  he  espouses  by  words  in  Darien,  and  agrees  to  allow 
his  newly-made  father-in-law  a  share  of  the  expected  booty.  In 
return,  Pedrarias  forwards  Vasco's  enterprise.  The  latter  prepare*; 
to  roam  the  South  Sea,  and  reach  Peru,  by  building  four  brigantines 


lyo  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

at  Ada,  a  port  about  loo  miles  south  of  the  modern  Aspinwall,  on 
the  Atlantic,  assisted  by  the  forced  labour  of  the  natives.  His  plan 
is,  after  completing  them,  to  take  these  vessels  to  pieces,  and  trans- 
port them  on  the  bare  backs  of  the  Indios  over  the  mountains  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  and  there  to  put  them  together  again. 

Any  one  who  has  been  on  the  Isthmus,  and  felt  its  hot  and  humid 
climate,  will  be  able  to  understand  the  terrible  difficulties  of  such  an 
undertaking.  How  many  of  the  gentle  and  affectionate  Indios  were 
mercilessly  used  up  in  hewing  the  trees  we  know  not;  but  we  do  know 
that  five  hundred  of  them  perished  in  the  first  portage  of  the  timber, 
a  distance  of  twelve  leagues.  At  this  stage  the  wood  turned  out  to 
be  worm-eaten,  and  the  whole  work  had  to  be  done  over  again.  It 
may  not  be  too  much  to  say  that,  in  the  end,  the  undertaking  cost 
several  thousand  native  lives. 

No  sooner  is  it  completed,  the  heavy  timbers  cut  and  transported 
over  the  mountains,  and  two  of  the  four  vessels  put  together  and 
launched  at  Panama,  than  Vasco  starts  upon  his  foray  for  gold.  He 
sails  down  the  coast  of  the  hitherto  peaceful  South  Sea,  and  lands 
and  despoils  the  natives  everywhere.  The  two  other  vessels  are  sub- 
sequently completed,  and  now  he  has  four  of  them,  with  400  armed 
and  desperate  men  aboard. 

But  as  though  an  avenging  Nemesis  followed  behind  this  enter- 
prise, the  robbers  fall  out  among  themselves,  and  justice  gets  her  due. 
Pedrarias,  hearing  that  Vasco  Nunez  intends,  when  once  fairly  away, 
to  cruise  on  his  own  account,  and  without  dividing  with  him,  sends 
for  him  from  Darien,  accuses  him  of  treason  to  the  Crown  (their 
common  stalking  horse),  and  puts  him,  his  son-in-law,  to  a  disgrace- 
ful death.  This  occurred  in  15 17,  and  for  the  present  it  deferred  the 
projected  pillage  of  Peru.  We  shall  see  the  attempt  to  carry  this  en- 
terprise revived  seven  years  later,  upon  a  regular  gold-hunter's  basis, 
the  conductors  being  Pizarro  and  Almagro,  one  of  whom  could  not 
read,  nor  the  other  one  write;  one  a  ruffian  and  an  outcast,  the  other 
an  assassin  and  a  fugitive  from  justice  in  Spain.  Pedrarias,  as  be- 
fore, was  one  of  the  partners,  his  share  being  one-fourth,  after  de- 
ducting the  king's  Fifth;  the  balance  going  equally  to  Pizarro,  Al- 
magro, and  De  Luque;  the  latter  a  ranchero,  on  the  river  Chagre, 
who  had  saved  up  some  money,  which  he  now  advanced  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  proposed  expedition. 

Meanwhile,  the  order  of  events  renders  it  necessary  to  turn  to  the 
conquest  of  Mexico. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


MKXICO. 


Expeditions  of  Bcrnal  Dia;^  and  Juan  cie  (Iriialva  to  Yucatan — These  lead  to  Cortes' 
expedition  to  Mexico — Character  of  Cortes — His  expedition  departs  without  authority 
and  commits  piracy — His  invasion  of  Mexico — Demands  for  gold — Compliance  of 
Montezuma — Cortes  destroys  his  own  fleet,  not  from  heroism,  but  fear  of  punish- 
ment at  home — Massacre  of  the  Tlascalans  and  alliance  with  the  survivors — The  city 
of  Mexico — Hospitality  and  credulity  of  Montezuma — Cortes  regarded  as  the  Messiah 
— Treacherous  seizure  of  Montezuma — His  forced  profession  of  vassalajje  to  Spain — 
Cortes  demands  all  the  gold  in  the  Kmpire — His  search  for  mines — Montezuma,  un- 
deceived, asks  him  to  depart — Arrival  of  reinforcements  for  Cortes — Death  of  Monte- 
zuma— Cortes  besieges  and  captures  Mexico,  and  puts  it  to  the  sword — Ihiexpected 
smallness  of  the  booty — The  Mexican  mines  worked  by  the  Conqueror — Frightful 
mortality  of  the  condemned  natives — Terrible  picture  by  an  eye  witness — Prehistoric 
mining — Mining  under  the  Spaniards — Recent  Mining — Production  since  the  Con- 
quest— The  future  of  the  Empire. 

RATHER  more  than  six  years  had  passed  since  the  first  explora- 
tion of  the  Isthmus  for  gold  before  it  was  perceived  that  its 
glittering  title  of  Castilla  de  Oro  was  undeserved.  In  151 6  the  Casa 
de  Fundicion  at  Darien  was  closed,  and  several  of  the  men  in  Ped- 
rarias'  command  asked  leave  to  go  to  Cuba.  Among  these  was  Ber- 
nal  Diaz,  who  has  written  an  account  of  the  conquest.  Diaz  was 
allowed  to  go.  Upon  his  arrival  in  Cuba  he  asked  the  Governor, 
(Velasquez)  for  an  encomienda  of  Imlius. '  As  owing  to  the  almost 
complete  extermination  of  the  Indios,  encomiendas  were  now  scarce, 
and  Diaz  was  impatient  to  make  his  fortune,  he  effected  a  partner- 
ship with  some  other  adventurers,  among  them  Francisco  Hernandez 
and  the  Governor  Velasquez,'  to  seek  new  lands,  and  capture  gold. 
Leaving  Santiago  de  Cuba,  in  151 7,  with  three  vessels  and  1 10  men, 

'  The  remark  of  Sir  .Arthur  Helps  (l,  222),  which  wc  have  quoted  on  a  previous 
page — namely,  that  the  Indios  had  become  a  sort  of  money,  was  as  true  of  Mexico 
as  of  Hispaniola.  Its  apology  will  be  found  in  Exodus  xxi,  21,  where  a  man's  slaves 
are  regarded  as  "  his  money." 

*  "  I  must  remark  here  upon  the  deplorable  manner  in  which  all  these  expeditions 
were  managed  ;  the  Ciovernor  descending  to  the  condition  of  a  merchant  adventurer, 
and  being  concerned  in  the  profits  of  each  enterprise."     Helps,  vol.  n,  p.  252. 


172  HIS'J'ORV    OF    THE    lUECIOUS    METALS. 

they  soon  sighted  the  coast  of  Yucatan,  where  they  landed  and  en- 
menced  their  usual  operations — robbery,  torture,  murder,  and  s|)ul,- 
ation.  After  obtaining  a  few  gold  ornaments,  the  natives,  discover- 
ing their  visitors'  character  and  objects,  refused  to  have  any  further 
dealings  with  them,  and  compelled  them  to  go  away.  Upon  their  re- 
turn to  Havana  they  whetted  theapi^etite  of  Velasquez  with  the  sight 
of  the  gold  they  had  secured;  and  he  assisted  them  to  fit  out  another 
expedition.  This  was  commanded  by  Juan  de  Grijalva;  Pedro  de 
Alvarado,  being  in  command  of  one  of  the  vessels.  They  made  the 
mainland  (15 18)  as  before,  raided  upon  the  natives,  got  some  gold, 
which  they  sent  to  Velasquez  by  the  hands  of  Alvarado,  and  waited 
for  reinforcements;  for  in  this  part  of  the  country  the  natives  were 
highly  civilized,  and  lived  in  stone  dwellings,  impervious  to  bullets 
and  bloodhounds.  Velasquez,  more  eager  than  ever,  fitted  out  a  con- 
siderable armanda,  the  command  of  which  he  entrusted  to  an  adven- 
turer and  gold  miner,  named  Hernando  Cortes. 

Cortes'  occupation  in  Cuba  was  getting  gold  by  means  of  an  en- 
comienda  of  Indios.  "How  many  of  whom  died  in  extracting  this 
gold  for  him,  God  will  have  kept  a  better  account  than  I,"  says  Las 
Casas.  "Los  que  por  sacarle  el  oro  murieron,  Dios  habra  tenido 
mejor  cuenta  que  yo. "  Cortes  was  much  addicted  to  gambling,  in 
which  occupation  his  composure  and  coolness  were  remarkable.  He 
was  neat  in  his  person,  and  wore  a  beautiful  gold  chain  and  a  diamond 
ring. 

The  armada  consisted  of  ten  vessels  (one  of  them  a  brigantine), 
550  Spaniards,  200  or  300  Indios,  12  or  15  horses,  10  brass  breech- 
loading  cannons,  a  number  of  falconets,  and  a  large  quantity  of  small 
arms  and  ammunition.  One  of  the  breech-loaders  is  still  preserved. 
The  outfit  cost  several  thousand  castellanos,  without  reckoning  the 
vessels  or  stores:  Cortes  contributing  5,000  castellanos,  seven  of  the 
vessels,  and  certain  stores,  obtained  upon  a  pledge  of  the  future 
profits  of  his  encomienda. 

On  the  eve  of  departure,  Velasquez,  suspecting  from  certain  pre- 
parations of  Cortes  that  the  latter  intended,  when  once  away,  to  con- 
duct the  expedition  for  his  own  profit  (and  to  violate  the  partner- 
ship), revoked  his  official  authority  for  its  completion  and  departure; 
but  before  this  could  be  prevented,  Cortes,  who  was  apprised  of 
Velasquez' intentions,  weighed  anchor  and  sailed  out  of  the  harbour. 

The  expedition  departed  from  Santiago  November  iS,  15 18.  On 
the  voyage  Cortes  pillaged  the  King  of  Spain's  stores  at  Macaca, 
and  a  Spanish  vessel  at  sea.     After  his  arrival  at  Trinidad,  orders 


MEXICO.  173 

came  from  Velasquez  to  supersede  him — but  he  refused  to  give  up 
his  command.  At  Havana,  where  he  also  stopped,  similar  orders 
reached  him,  but  these  he  also  disobeyed.  In  fact,  to  use  his  own 
words,  he  had  become  a  pirate,  and  Bernal  Diaz  says  he  carried  the 
Black  Flag.  "  Su  estandarte  era  de  tafetan  negro,  con  cruz  colorada, 
etc."  The  voluntary  destruction  of  his  "fleet"  at  Vera  Cruz  is  an  an- 
cient yarn  which  we  read  of  Tiriadates,  Julian  and  many  other  heroes 
of  antiquity.  If  true,  in  the  case  of  Cortes,  it  must  not  be  mis- 
taken for  an  heroic  action;  for  there  was  nothing  more  heroic  in 
attacking  a  post  of  naked  Indios  with  breech-loaders  than  in  the  re- 
cent murder  of  Lobenguela's  Zulus  with  repeating  rifles  and  Ma.\im 
guns.  Assuming  the  narrative  to  be  correct,  the  motive  of  Cortes 
was  probably  the  despair  of  his  followers.  In  brief,  there  was  no- 
thing left  for  them  but  ruin,  or  such  ample  success  in  gold-hunting 
as  should  efface  their  piratical  actions  in  the  eyes  of  the  king. 

Their  commander  had  no  authority  from  Velasquez  to  make  a 
colonial  settlement,  but  only  to  seek  gold,  and  this  authority  Velas- 
quez had  twice  revoked,  to  Cortes'  knowledge.  In  order  to  give  his 
acts  a  semblance  of  legality  he  caused  his  followers,  after  they  had 
landed  in  Mexico,  to  request  him,  in  writing,  to  form  a  colony  and 
appoint  officers;  this  was  a  cunning  move,  but  it  could  not  alter  the 
illegal  and  piratical  character  of  the  expedition. 

Cortes  lands  in  Mexico  at  Tobasco,  whence  he  carries  off  an  Indian 
princess  (Dona  Marina)  to  fill  the  double  part  of  concubine  and  inter- 
preter. Ujion  this  incident  the  ungallant  Helps  remarks:  "It  is  clear 
that  throughout  the  conquest  of  America  the  Indian  women  several 
times  betrayed  their  country,  under  circumstances  which  do  not  seem 
to  me  to  indicate  so  much  a  love  of  truth  (as  Herrera  says  of  women 
generally)  as  a  love  of  what  is  personal  and  near,  and  an  indifferance 
to  what  is  abstract  and  remote,  a  disposition  which  has  been  noted' 
equally  of  all  women  in  all  countries.  In  a  word,  they  loved  their 
lovers  and  did  not  care  much  about  their  country." 

Cortes  next  lands  at  San  Juan  de  Uloa,  where  he  sees  the  mes- 
sengers of  Montezuma,  of  whom  he  at  once  asks  if  their  king  has 
any  gold.  Being  answered  in  the  affirmative,  he  said,"  Let  him  send 
it  to  me,  for  I  and  my  companions  have  a  complaint,  a  disease  of  the 
heart,  which  is  cured  by  gold."  Awed  by  his  cannon,  his  steel  ar- 
mour, and  above  all,  his  horses,  the  frightened  messengers  conveyed 
this  insolent  speech  and  grim  jest  to  Montezuma,  and  brought  back, 
alas!  for  the  peace  of  their  country,  a  sum  of  gold  and  an  abundance 
of  civil  words. 


174  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Cortes  first  builds  a  fort  at  Vera  Cruz,  makes  an  alliance  with  the 
dissatisfied  cacique  of  Cempoala,  and  sends  what  gold  he  had  obtained 
to  Spain,  in  the  hope  of  getting  authority  for  his  expedition;  but  the 
Court  treats  his  acts  as  piratical.  Then  he  destroys  his  ships.  This 
last  act  was  not  his  own.  His  followers  demanded  it,  because  each 
one  knew  he  dared  not  return  to  Spain  or  any  of  its  colonies,  and 
feared  treachery  and  desertion  by  the  others,  who  might  get  away 
before  him,  and,  turning  king's  evidence,  inform  the  authorities 
where  he  might  be  found. 

After  this,  Cortes  marches  towards  the  city  of  Mexico.  On  his 
way  he  rides  down  the  Tlascalans  with  his  iron-shod  horses,  en- 
countering 149,000  of  them  in  one  field,  brings  them  to  terms  and 
pillages  them,^  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  city  of  Tlascala  especially 
exciting  his  cupidity.  He  then  marches  to  Cholulu,  where  he  strikes 
terror  into  the  townspeople  by  slaying  and  burning  them  right  and 
left.  After  pillaging  the  town  he  continues  his  march,  and  comes 
in  sight  of  the  great  valley  of  Mexico.  Looking  down  upon  the 
wondrous  cities  of  that  magnificent  plain,  the  adventurers  thought 
of  the  booty  it  contained,  and  recalled  a  proverb  well  known  in  Spain : 
"The  more  Moors  the  more  spoil."     "Mas  Moros,  mas  ganancia." 

Approaching  the  city,  Cortes  is  met  on  the  way  by  the  king's  am- 
Tjassadors,  who  furnish  at  two  places  lodgment  and  banquets  for  his 
followers.  Then  he  beholds  Montezuma  in  a  litter  covered  with  a 
pall  of  green  feathers  adorned  with  gold,  silver,  and  pearls,  and 
precious  stones:  his  mantle  being  similarly  adorned;  on  his  head  a 
mitred  diadem  of  gold,  and  on  his  feet,  golden  sandals.  They  ex- 
change presents,  Montezuma  giving  to  Cortes  two  collars  orna- 
mented with  golden  craw-fish,  and  Cortes  to  Montezuma  (somewhat 
significantly)  a  collar  of  false  pearls  and  diamonds.  The  procession 
moved  toward  the  city,  the  people  admiring  the  glistening  armour 
of  the  Spaniards  and  the  wondrous  animals  they  bestrode. 

They  entered  the  city  November  8,  15 19.  It  contained  from  300,- 
000  to  800,000  inhabitants;  Cortes  had  about  450  men.  He  is  given 
a  palace,  and  every  provision  is  made  for  the  comfort  of  his  men. 
He  opens  proceedings  with  Montezuma  by  averring  that  he  and  his 
band  are  messengers  from  God  and  His  deputies,  the  Pope  and  the 
King  of  Spain;  and  are  come  to  redeem  Montezuma  and  his  peopl«e 
from  sin.  This  was  a  crafty  move.  Upon  being  reported  in  Spain,  and 
in  case  he  triumphed  in  Mexico,  it  would  serve  to  make  the  peace  of 

^  See  reference  to  Spanish  demand  for  gold  in  the  Tlascalan  Council.  Helps,  11, 
290.     Tlascala  contained  500,000  heads  of  families,  or,  say,  2,500,000  people. 


MEXICO.  175 

Cortes  with  both  Crown  and  Mitre,  for  it  would  prove  that  he  had  pro- 
ceeded in  the  name  of  authority.  It  had  a  wonderful  effect  upon 
Montezuma,  who,  as  Cortes  well  knew  (from  the  ambassadors  with 
whom  he  had  previously  conferred),  believed,  in  common  with  his 
people,  in  the  coming  of  a  Messiah.* 

Said  the  king,  "We  hold  it  for  certain  that  you  are  the  personages 
of  whom  our  ancestors  spoke,  who  would  come  from  where  the  Sun 
rises;  and  to  your  King  1  am  greatly  beholden  and  will  give  him  of 
all  that  which  I  may  possess."  Cortes  perceiving  the  effect  of  his 
talk,  followed  it  up  with  other  of  the  same  sort,  and  in  effect  made 
out  an  abstract  of  title  to  Montezuma  and  his  whole  empirtJ.  The 
freebooters  about  Cortes  must  have  grown  tireil  of  this  palaver  and 
felt  an.xious  to  come  to  business,  for  Bernal  Diaz  writes  (c.  90)  that 
Cortes  turned  to  his  men  and  said  to  them  all:  "We  will  soon  finish 
with  him.  This  is  only  the  first  touch,  you  know."  "Edi.xonos 
Cortes  a  todos  nosotros,  que  con  el  fuimos;  con  estoc  cumplimos,  por 
ser  el  primer  toque."  Afterwards  they  got  a  lot  of  gold  and  trinkets, 
and  thus  ended  the  first  day. 

Ne.xt  day  Cortes  asked  Montezuma  to  see  the  temple,  which  re- 
quest was  granted.  Here  he  saw  the  God  of  War,  "covered  with  gold, 
pearls,  and  precious  stones,"  and  girt  about  with  golden  serpents. 
A  golden  shield  and  the  faces  of  men  wrougiit  in  gold  and  their  hearts 
in  silver  surrounded  the  shrine.  This  sight  intoxicated  the  Spaniards, 
who  were  impatient  to  be  let  loose  upon  the  devoted  city.  Cortes 
resolves  to  begin  the  work  by  seizing  upon  Montezuma. 

On  the  third  day  the  king  gave  his  treacherous  guest  some  golden 
ornaments  and  one  of  his  daugtiters.  In  return,  Cortes  asked  the 
king  to  go  and  live  with  his  band  in  their  quarters,  in  short,  to  become 
his  prisoner.  To  this  ungrateful  and  audacious  demand,  the  king  re- 
plied with  dignity:  "  I  am  not  one  of  those  persons  who  are  put  in 
prison.      Even  if  I  were  to  consent,  my  subjects  would  never  permit 

*  The  incarnations  of  Quetzaicoatl,  whose  other  names  were  Votan,  tukulcan. 
lesona,  Hacob,  and  I'apachtic,  or  "  Him  of  the  Flowing  Locks,"  are  variously  fixed 
in  B.  C.955,  B.C.  297,  .\.  1).  722,  and  A.  I).  895.  .\ccording  to  one  system  of  as- 
trology his  re-appcarance  was  due  in  the  year  corresponding  to  .\.  I).  1553:  according 
to  another  system,  it  was  due  in  the  year  corresponding  to  A.  D.  1527,  which  was  only 
seven  or  eight  years  after  the  landing  ofCortes  The  details  of  the  myth,  as  given  by 
the  various  authorities  (|Uoted  in  "  The  Worship  of  .Augustus, "  p.  205,  and  elsewhere, 
are  ver)-  surprising.  The  god  was  to  make  his  advent  upon  a  White  Horse,  the  horse 
being  an  animal  unknown  to  the  Mexicans  ;  yet  clearly  depicted  in  their  picture- 
chronicles.  Cortes  had  but  little  difficulty  in  persuading  the  credulous  Mexicans  that 
he  and  his  horse  constituted  the  fultilmcnt  of  the  expectation.  Another  detail  of  the 
myth  was  that  upon  the  advent  of  the  .Messiah  "  the  .Mexican  Empire  was  to  cease." 
(Helps.  II,  360.)  It  was  owing  to  this  delusion  that  the  rights  of  sovereignty  and 
lordship  Jsehoria  destas  tierras)feU  so  readily  t)ef ore  the  demands  of  the  crafty  Spanish 
adventurer. 


176  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

it."  Cortes  endeavours  to  urge  him,  and  Montezuma  shows  him  how 
absurd  his  demand  is;  when  the  colloquy  is  interrupted  by  one  of  the 
Spaniards  who  says,  ''What  is  the  use  of  all  this  talk  ?  Let  him 
yield  himself  our  prisoner,  or  we  will  this  instant  dispatch  him. "  The 
upshot  of  it  was  that  Montezuma  was  carried  a  prisoner  to  the  Span- 
iards' quarters,  and  there  immediately  put  in  irons.  The  credulity 
and  infatuation  of  Montezuma  were  so  great,  that  after  being  him- 
self made  a  prisoner  he  assisted  to  make  one  of  his  nephew,  Caca- 
matzin,  the  only  one  of  the  royal  family  who  saw  through  the  pre- 
tended Messiah,  and  real  pirate,  Cortes.  After  this  (oh,  the  infatua- 
tion of  a  false  belief!),  at  Cortes'  request,  Montezuma  publicly  re- 
commended his  nobles  and  people  to  declare  themselves  "jointly 
and  severally  "  vassals  to  the  king  of  Spain. 

With  this  act  fell  the  Mexican  Empire.  The  time  for  plunder  and 
massacre  had  now  come.  "As  might  be  expected,  one  of  the  first 
things  demanded  of  Montezuma  after  this  act  of  vassalage,  was  gold, 
of  which  a  great  quantity — no  less  than  to  the  value  of  one  hundred 
thousand  ducats — was  handed  over  to  Cortes  by  the  king."  This  was 
indeed  a  great  quantity,  for  Mexico  produces  very  little  gold,  her 
main  yield  of  the  precious  metals  being  of  silver.  Even  if  the  Mexi- 
can's knew  how  to  obtain  this  metal  from  the  ore,  which  is  doubtful, 
silver  was  too  heavy  for  Cortes'  views.  What  he  wanted  was  very 
portable  property.  "He  first  took  care  to  ascertain  where  the  Mexican 
gold  mines  were  to  be  found,  and  forthwith  sent  Spaniards,  accom- 
panied by  Montezuma's  officers,  into  the  several  provinces  designated 
as  gold-producing."  He  then  obtained  from  Montezuma  a  complete 
map  of  the  coast,  and  ascertained  where  the  best  harbours  were 
situated. 

By  this  time  the  simple  monarch  began  to  understand  something 
of  the  character  of  the  Gods  and  Messiahs  on  horseback  who  had 
dropped  down  upon  him,  and  begged  Cortes  to  depart,  offering  him 
a  load  of  gold  for  each  of  his  men  and  two  for  himself.  On  pre- 
tense of  assenting,  Cortes  induced  Montezuma  to  order  his  people 
to  assist  him  (Cortes)  in  hewing  the  timber  for  four  ships  (brigantines). 
These  he  really  wanted  for  service  on  the  lake  in  which  the  city  of 
Mexico  was  situated,  and  they  were  actually  built  and  subsequently 
used  in  the  attack  on  the  place. 

At  this  juncture  eighteen  vessels  and  800  men  arrived  at  Vera 
Cruz  under  Narvaez,  to  arrest  Cortes.  Cortes  first  tries  to  bribe,  then 
he  marches  against  the  king's  forces,  whom  he  cajoles  and  defeats, 
then  he  enlists  the  whole  command  under  his  flag.     After  this  he  re- 


MEXICO.  177 

turns  to  Mexico.  During  his  absence  the  city  had  revolted  against 
the  forces,  which,  under  command  of  Alvarado,  liad  been  left  to  watch 
it.  In  this  strait  the  latter  induced  Montezuma  to  exhort  his  people 
to  forbearance,  and  the  Emperor  complied.  This  act  so  exasperated 
the  Mexicans  that  they  stoned  the  feeble  monarch  to  death.  Cortes, 
on  his  return,  besieges  the  city,  is  defeated,  loses  all  his  gold  and 
silver,  retires  to  the  country  of  the  Tlascalans,  obtains  150,000  In- 
dian allies,  again  besieges  Mexico,  destroys  it  bit  by  bit,  slaughters 
300,000  of  its  inhabitants,  and  after  a  series  of  carnages  which  lasted 
seventy-five  days  subdues  the  city,  August  13,  1521.' 

An  orgie  with  the  women  who  were  captured  alive,  celebrated  the 
victory,  and  then  came  the  division  of  the  spoil;  but  "the  conquer- 
ors were  entirely  disappointed  with  the  smallness  of  the  booty." 
They  put  both  the  captured  Emperor  of  Mexico,  Montezuma's  bro- 
ther, and  the  King  of  Tlacuba  to  the  torture,  to  reveal  the  where- 
abouts of  the  coveted  gold.  The  only  reply  they  got  was  the  disap- 
pointing one  that  during  the  siege  the  Emjieror  had  caused  "  what- 
ever gold,  silver,  precious  stones  and  jewels  "  remained,  to  be  thrown 
into  the  lake. 

The  scope  of  the  present  work  does  not  render  it  necessary  to 
pursue  the  history  of  this  conquest  any  further.  How  the  city  of 
Mexico  was  compelled  to  be  rebuilt  by  the  Indios  at  their  own  ex- 
pense of  materials,  labour,  and  food  ;  how  the  land  was  parcelled  out 
among  the  conquerors,  and  the  inhabitants  given  in  encomiendas  ; 
and  how  the  search  for  gold,  which  was  commenced  with  murder  by 
fire  and  sword,  was  continued  with  murder  by  the  lash  and  the  mine 
— these  are  proceedings  which,  if  related  in  detail,  would  of  them- 
selves suffice  to  fill  many  volumes.  That  the  reader  may  be  able  to 
form  some  judgment  with  regard  to  the  sacrifice  of  life  in  the  mines, 
an  account  of  them,  twenty  years  after  the  country  was  conquered, 
will  now  be  given  from  the  relation  of  an  eye-witness. 

In  the  library  of  Sir  Thomas  Phillipps,  IJart.,  of  Middle  Hill,  is 
an  original  manuscript  letter  from  Fray  Toribio  Motolinia  de  I'aredes, 
to  Don  Antonio  Pimentel,  Conde  de  Bcnavente,  dated  February  24, 
1541.  It  is  from  this  letter  that  the  following  quotation  is  made. 
First,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  state  that  Father  Motolinia  de 
.Paredes  was  a  monk  who  had  joined  the  Spanish  colony  in  Mexico, 
and  was  "greatly  honoured  by  his  contemporaries  and  trusted  by 
Cortes." 

*  Torquemada  says  that  the  city  and  suburbs  contained  120,000  houses.  This  would 
imply  a  population  of  say  750,000. 


178  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

In  the  letter  above  mentioned,  "this  excellent  monk  gives  an  ac- 
count of  what  he  considers  to  have  been  the  Ten  Plagues  of  New 
Spain.  I.  The  small-pox."  2.  The  slaughter  during  the  Conquest. 
3.  A  great  famine  which  took  place  immediately  after  the  capture  of 
the  city.  4.  The  Indian  and  negro  overseers.  5.  The  excessive 
tributes  and  services  demanded  from  the  Indians.  6.  The  gold  mines. 
7.  The  rebuilding  of  Mexico.  8.  The  making  of  slaves  in  order  to 
work  them  in  the  mines.  9.  The  transport  service  for  the  mines. 
10.   The  dissensions  among  the  Spaniards  themselves." 

In  the  description  which  he  gives  of  the  Ninth  plague,  Father  Mo- 
tolinia  dwells  upon  the  loss  of  life  amongst  the  Indians  employed 
in  the  transport  service  of  the  mines.  "They  came  from  seventy 
leagues  and  upwards,"  he  says,  "bringing  provisions  and  whatever 
was  needful,  and  when  they  had  arrived,  the  Spanish  mine  masters 
would  detain  them  for  several  days  to  do  some  specific  work,  such  as 
blasting  a  rock  or  completing  a  building.  The  provisions  they  had 
brought  for  themselves  were  soon  exhausted,  and  then  the  poor 
wretches  had  to  starve,  for  no  one  would  give  them  food,  and  they 
had  no  money  wherewith  to  buy  it.  The  result  of  all  this  atrocity 
and  mismanagement  was  that  some  died  on  their  way  to  the  mines  ; 
some  at  the  mines;  some  on  their  way  back;  some  (and  these  were 
most  to  be  pitied)  just  after  they  had  reached  home."  "Volvian  tales 
que  luego  se  morian." 

The  number  of  deaths  was  so  great  that  the  corpses  bred  pestil- 
ence; and,  mentioning  one  particular  mine  (or  mining  district),  Mo- 
tohnia  affirms  that  for  half  a  league  round  it,  and  for  a  great  part  of 
the  road  to  it,  you  could  scarcely  make  a  step  except  upon  dead  bodies 
or  the  bones  of  dead  men.  The  birds  of  prey  coming  to  feed  upon 
these  corpses  darkened  the  sun.  "Y  destos  y  de  los  esclavos  que 
murieron  en  las  minas  fue  tanto  el  hedor  que  causo  pestilencia,  en 
especial  en  las  minas  de  Guaxacan,  (Oajaca)  en  las  quales  media 
legua  a  la  redonda  y  mucha  parte  del  camino  apenas  se  podia  pisar 
sino  sobre  hombres  6  sobre  huesos.  Y  eran  tantas  las  aves  y  cuervos 
que  venian  a  comer  sobre  los  cuerpos  muertos  que  hazian  gran  som- 
bra  a  el  sol." 

The  history  of  the  precious  metals  in  Mexico  has  been  made  the 
subject  of  so  many  excellent  treatises  familiar  to  the  European  world, 
prominent  among  them  being  the  works  of  the  Abbe  Raynal,  Baron 
Alexander  Von  Humboldt,  and  Sir  Henry  George  Ward,  that  only  a 

^  There  is  reason  to  suspect  that  a  far  graver  disease  is  meant,  and  that  the  Span- 
iards were  responsible  for  its  introduction. 


MEXICO.  179 

brief  sketch  of  the  subject  needs  to  be  included  in  the  present  chap- 
ter. This  sketch  will  be  arranjjed  under  the  heads  of  Prehistoric 
Mining,  Mining  untler  the  Spaniards,  and  Recent  Mining. 

With  regard  to  Prehistoric  mining  it  must  be  premised  that  the 
Aztecs  had  no  knowledge  of  iron,  and  therefore,  that  subterranean 
mining,  below  such  rare  surface  deposits  of  visible  native  metal  as 
may  have  been  accidently  discovered  and  worked  by  the  people,  is 
practically  out  of  question.  It  is  true  that  modern  prospectors  have 
found  in  Mexico  (here  this  includes  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  Utah  and 
California,etc.,)old  shaftsand  remainsof  miningworkswhichappeared 
to  them  to  have  been  the  scene  of  prehistoric  mining,  and  that  this 
opinion  has  even  found  its  way  into  works  of  reference — for  example, 
in  Ajipleton's  Encyclopedia,  ed.  1S62,  v,  679.  and  an  official  jiubli- 
cation  entitled  "  Mineral  Resources  of  the  United  States."  But  the 
appearances  were  probably  misleading.  What  was  found  was  ancient 
workings  coilpled  with  volcanic  upheavals,  or  else  with  deposits  of 
lava  or  trap,  both  of  which  last  were  regarded  as  evidences  of  vast 
antiquity.  This  inference  is  hardly  warranted.  There  are  volcanic 
formations  in  Utah  from  which  plants  of  existing  species  and  even 
live  frogs  have  been  taken,  and  which,  therefore,  must  be  of  very  re- 
cent formation.  Most  of  the  territories  named  are  so  desert  and 
tenantless  that  in  many  parts  a  volcanic  disturbance  and  a  plutonic 
alteration  of  the  rocks  may  even  now  occur  (overnight)  without  its 
being  known  and  recorded.  In  the  Abo  country  in  New  Mexico 
there  are  evidences  of  volcanic  eruptions  which  overwhelmed  dwel- 
lings and  buried  the  inhabitants  in  ashes  and  lava.  Old  mining  shafts, 
the  ruins  of  rude  smelters,  heaps  of  slag  and  blackened  float  have 
been  found  in  the  Manzana  Mountains.  (Eureka  Leader,  1881.)  The 
prospectors  regarded  these  remains  as  of  a  geological  antiquity; 
whereas,  they  may  have  been  and  probably  were  the  ruins  of  mining 
prosecuted  long  since  the  Spaniards  plundered  Mexico. 

Mining  under  the  Spaniards  began  shortly  after  the  Conquest.  Be- 
side what  gold  the  ill-starred  Aztecs  wore  upon  their  persons,  or  had 
accumulated  in  their  temples,  there  was  comparatively  little  of  that 
metal  to  reward  the  followers  of  Cortes.  The  river  beds  and  such 
few  other  gold  deposits  as  were  known  to  the  natives  or  discovered 
by  their  conquerors,  were  soon  exhausted,  and  but  for  the  opening  of 
the  silver  mines  Mexico  might  have  been  spared  by  the  marauders  as 
Florida  and  Louisiana  were  spared,  because  they  contained  but  little 
to  gratify  their  ferocious  cupidity. 

Among  the  districts  first  opened  were  Tasco,  Zultepec,Tlalpujahua, 


l8o  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

and  Pachuca.  These  were  in  the  vicinity  of  the  capital  and  had 
probably  been  superficially  worked  by  the  natives.  Zacatecas  was 
opened  in  1532,  and  the  Veta  Grande  of  the  same  district  in  1548. 
In  the  same  year  San  Luis  Potosi  (not  to  be  confounded  with  the 
Potosi  of  Peru)  was  opened;  Sombrerete  in  1555;  and  Guanajuato 
in  1558.  Two  centuries  later  this  last-named  district  was  again  in 
bonanza.  Bartolomeo  de  Medina  discovered  or  improved  the  patio 
process  while  working  at  Pachuca  in  1557.  During  the  17th  century 
but  few  new  districts  of  importance  were  opened,  but  in  the  follow- 
ing century  Colima,  Biscaina,  Jacal,  Real  del  Monte,  Valenciana, 
Catorce,  Guarisamey  near  Durango,  Ramas  and  other  rich  districts 
swelled  with  their  product  the  ample  yield  of  silver  in  Mexico.  In 
round  figures,  it  may  be  stated,  that  from  the  Conquest  to  the  close 
of  the  19th  century,  the  total  coinage  of  Mexico  was  in  silver  about 
3,270  million  dollars  of  8}4  to  the  mark,  and  in  gold  about  130  mil- 
lion dollars  of  16  to  the  ounce;  together  about  3,500  millions.  The 
present  annual  coinage  of  silver  is  about  2 1  millions,  and  of  gold  about 
half  a  million  dollars,  both  of  the  same  weights  as  the  foregoing. 
The  "product"  of  late  years  has  been  "estimated"  by  the  Direc- 
tor of  the  United  States  Mints  at  very  much  larger  sums,  especially 
of  silver;  but  as  the  estimate  is  put  forward  evidently  to  sustain  a 
monetary  theory,  it  is  regarded  as  much  safer  to  adhere  to  the  sta- 
stistics  of  the  Mexican  coinage.  If  the  product  for  the  entire  period 
since  the  Conquest  is  desired  to  be  deduced  from  the  coinage,  some- 
thing will  have  to  be  added  for  bullion  used  in  the  arts  or  exported 
uncoined.  On  the  other  hand,  something  needs  to  be  added  for  plate 
coined  and  for  coins  melted  and  recoined  in  INIexico.  If  we  add  to 
the  3,500  millions  coined  in  Mexico,  an  equal  sum  produced  in  Peru 
and  the  other  countries  of  Spanish  and  Portuguese  America,  we  have 
the  enormous  total  of  7,000  million  dollars  of  the  precious  metals 
from  these  sources  alone,  to  say  nothing  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

An  eminent  writer  has  said  that  "  the  only  mode  of  procuring  the 
services  of  others,  on  any  large  scale,  in  the  absence  of  money,  is  by 
force,  which  is  slavery.  Money,  by  constituting  a  medium  in  which 
the  smallest  services  can  be  paid  for,  substitutes  wages  for  the  lash, 
and  renders  the  liberty  of  the  individual  consistent  with  the  main- 
tenance and  support  of  society."  Such  was  the  effect  produced  by 
the  billions  exhumed  from  the  American  mines.  They  cost  the  lives 
of  30  millions  of  natives;  they  have  emancipated  ten  times  30  millions 
of  Europeans,  in  whose  customs  and  literature  were  stored  the  ac- 
cumulated  knowledge   of  countless  ages.      The  expeditions  of  the 


MEXICO.  l8l 

conquerors  of  America  were  sordid  and  ferocious;  the  unlooked  for 
result  has  been  to  confer  upon  the  entire  human  race  the  blessings 
of  freedom  and  the  elements  of  future  progress. 

Until  Mexico  achieved  its  independence  in  1821,  the  principal,  al- 
most the  sole  industry  of  its  masters  was  the  pursuit  of  golil  and  silver. 
Agriculture  was  followed  but  little  beyond  the  point  of  securing  sus- 
tenance for  the  men  and  animals  employed  in  mining.  The  arts  were 
almost  entirely  neglected  and  manufactured  goods  were  nearly  all 
imported.  Wherever  the  mines  gave  out,  everything  in  tiie  vicinity 
went  to  ruin.  For  example,  the  city  of  Chihuahua  had  neither  pas- 
tural,  agricultural,  manufacturing  nor  commercial  resources;  almost 
its  sole  reliance  was  the  silver  mines  of  the  vicinity,  of  which  the  chief 
ones  were  Santa  Eulalia,  Batopilas,  El  Parral,  JMordas,  and  Jesus 
Maria.  The  mines  built  the  city  and  afterwards  ruined  it.  Chihau- 
hua  once  contained  70,000  inhabitants.  Until  recently  this  number 
had  fallen  to  10,000.  National  independence  and  the  introduction 
of  railways  have  since  increased  it  to  20,000.  San  Luis  Potosi  once 
had  a  population  of  75,000  to  100.000.  In  1642  the  mines  caved  in, 
burying  400  miners,  after  which  the  town  went  to  ruin.  The  popula- 
tion fell  to  less  than  10,000.  National  freedom  and  the  promotion 
of  trade  has  since  increased  it  to  30,000. 

Though  the  Revolution  put  an  end  for  a  time  to  mining  on  a  large 
scale,  this  was  afterwards  resumed,  and  Mexico  is  to-day  as  great  a 
producer  of  silver  as  it  ever  was.  It  is  also  a  great  agricultural  and 
pastural  State,  and  within  recent  years  the  construction  of  railwav 
lines  has  afforded  tremendous  impetus  to  manufactures.  Under  the 
present  admirable  administration  encouragement  has  been  afforded 
to  every  department  of  industry,  and  increasing  prosperity  has  marked 
the  development  of  the  country  in  every  direction.  The  blood  of  its 
aboriginal  inhabitants  was  not  shed  in  vain.  It  has  built  up  an  em- 
pire which  may  yet  be  destined  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  drama 
of  the  world's  development. 


l82  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


PRODUCTION  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER  IN  MEXICO. 


According  to  a  paper  read  before  the  Scientific  Society  of  Mexico,  by  Antonio  Alzate,  the  product 
of  gold  in  Mexico  during  the  Eighties  was  about  three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars,  ot  4.86  to  the  £ 
sterling,  while  during  the  Ninetie's,  until  1894-5,  it  was  about  one  million  dollars.  In  the  last-named 
fiscal  year  a  law,  introduced  June  4,  1894,  "  reduced  the  annual  mining  tax  up  to  10  per  cent,  and  abol- 
ished all  other  federal  taxes  on  gold,  e.xcept  the  Stamp  tax."  Under  this  encouragement,  the  annual 
product  of  gold  rose  in  1894-5  to  about  $5,000,000,  in  1895-6  to  $6,500,000,  and  in  1896-7  to  $7,250,000. 
On  the  same  basis  the  product  in  1897-8  was  $8,000,000,  and  in  1898-9  $9,500,000. 

According  to  the  United  States  Consular  Report,  No.  222,  the  product  of  gold  in  Mexico  in  1892-3 
was  about  $1,270,000;  1893-4,  $1,250,000;  1894-5,  $4,750,000;  1895-6,  $6,000,000;  1896-7,  $5,860,000; 
1897-8,  $7,500,000;  and  in  1898-g,  $9,500,000. 

Mr.  Valentine,  of  Wells,  Fargo  &  Co.,  estimates  the  product  from  1877  '°  1894  at  about  a  million  dollars 
a  year;  1894-5,  $4,750,000;  1895-6,  $5,500,000;  1896-7,  $8,500,000;  1897-8,  $9,225,000;  and  1898-9,  at 
$10,000,000. 

As  it  is  well  known  that  during  the  prevalence  of  the  taxes,  much  of  the  gold  produced  in  Mexico 
was  smuggled  out  of  the  country,  either  as  gold  or  as  gold  mingled  with  silver,  it  is  deemed  fairer  to 
estimate  the  gold  product  during  the  Seventies  at  a  million  a  year  ;  during  the  Eighties  at  two  millions) 
and  during  the  Nineties  three  millions,  until  1895,  when  it  rose  to  six  millions,  and  has  since  increased 
at  the  rate  of  about  a  million  a  year,  until  at  the  present  time,  1901,  it  is  about  twelve  millions. 

The  best  statistics  which  we  have  thus  far  seen  concerning  the  silver  product  of  Mexico  are  those 
published  by  Mr.  Valentine,  who,  however,  has  cast  them  into  American  dollars  of  371  1-4  grains  fine 
each,  so  that  the  product  in  ounces  can  only  be  deduced  by  calculation.  If  the  dollars  in  Mr.  Valen- 
tine's tables  are  multiplied  by  the  decimal  fraction,  0.773,437,  the  result  will  be  as  follows,  the  last  two 
years  being  estimated  from  data  furnished  by  the  government  of  Mexico  : 

Production  of  Silver  in  Mexico,  fine  ounces,   Troy. 

Year.      Ounces.  Year.      Ounces.  Year.      Ounces.  Year.       Ounces. 

1877-8     19,209,855  1883-4    24,514,686  1889-90  32,097,636  1895-6    42,113,645 

1878-9    19,432,604  1884-5     25,698,218  1890-1     33,257,791  1896-7    46,934,477 

1879-80  20,728,112  1885-6    26,383,483  1891-2    35,384,743  1897-8     52,226,333 

1880-1     22,610,657  1886-7    26,760,920  1892-3    37,511,695  1898-9    50,513,170 

i88i-2     22,684,134  1887-8     27,002,233  1893-4     36,544,898  1899-00  50,000,000 

1882-3     22,869,759  1888-9     31,483,527  1894-5     41,939,621  1900-1     50,000,000 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  while  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  the  production  of  gold  in  Mexico 
has  increased  from  one  to  twelve  million  dollars  a  year  ;  that  of  silver,  after  increasing  from  19  to  52 
millions,  has  fallen  to  about  50  million  ounces.  When  the  21  million  dollars  silver  annually  coined,  as 
mentioned  on  p.  180,  are  reduced  to  weights,  namely,  about  16  1-4  million  ounces  fine,  and  these  are  de- 
ducted from  the  estimated  total  product,  it  follows  that  Mexico  now  annually  exports  about  33  to  35 
million  ounces  fine  silver,  while  the  export  of  gold  amounts  in  weight  to  over  half  a  million  ounces  fine, 
with  a  tendancy  to  increase. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

YUCATAN     AND     HONDURAS. 

The  spoil  of  Mexico — Cortes  sends  the  King's  share  and  the  regalia  of  Montezuma 
to  the  Court  of  Spain,  and  obtains  legitimacy  for  his  acts — His  depredations  renewed 
— Aversion  to  lawyers — Search  after  gold  mines — Enslavement  of  the  Indios — Cortes 
sends  Olid  to  raid  Honduras — Olid  turns  buccaneer — Is  pursued  by  Cortes — Monte- 
zuma's brother  and  another  royal  captive  put  to  death  on  the  march — Cortes  ravages 
Yucatan — Olid  is  overtaken  and  killed — Cortes  returns  to  Mexico  to  find  himself  su- 
perceded in  command — The  new  governor  of  Mexico,  Ponce  de  Leon — He  impeaches 
Cortes — Is  assassinated — Succeeded  by  de  Aguilar,  who  also  dies  suddenly — Estrada, 
the  new* governor — Cortes  picks  a  quarrel  with  him  and  is  sent  to  Spain — He  obtains 
favour  at  the  Court  and  is  permitted  to  return  to  Mexico  as  a  subordinate — His  riches 
and  subsequent  poverty — He  again  returns  to  Spain,  where  he  dies  in  obscurity  and 
indigence — Mortality  of  the  Mexicans  occasioned  by  the  gold-seeking  expeditions  of 
the  conquerors — The  huacas  of  Chiriqui — The  mines  of  Honduras. 

IX  the  early  part  of  1521  the  Spanish  Crown  sent  out  a  governor  for 
New  Spain  (the  modern  Mexico)  named  Cristobal  de  'I'apia;  but 
Cortes  and  hisarmed  associates  drove  him  away.  In  1522  Cortes,  hav- 
ing gathered  what  he  deemed  sufficient  spoil  for  the  purpose  in  view, 
sent  8S,ooo  pesos  in  gold  bars'  and  Montezuma's  regalia  and  ward- 
robe to  the  Court  of  Spain,  with  the  request  that  in  consideration  of 
his  having  coiupiered  a  new  country  for  the  Crown  his  acts  might  be 
legitimated.  Although  these  treasures  never  reached  Spain,  having 
been  captured  at  sea  by  a  French  corsair,  the  "Jean  Florin,"  Cortes 
was  recognized  by  the  Crown,  in  a  despatch  tlated  Valladolid,  Octo- 
ber 15,  1522,  as  governor  and  captain-general. 

Notwithstanding  this  act  of  legitimation,  the  predatory  character 
of  Cortes  and  his  band  remained  unchanged.  In  1523  Cortes  asks 
the  Crown  that  no  lawyers  shall  be  sent  to  New  Spain,  or,  if  any 
should  get  there,  that  they  may  not  have  authority  to  advocate  causes. 
Similar  requests  were  made  by  Vasco  Nunez  de  lialbao,  from  Terra 
Firma,  in  15  13;  by  the  Commissioners  of  Cuba  in  15 16;  by  Pizarro, 
from  Peru,  in  1529;  and  by  Cabe(;a  de  Vaca,  frt)m  La  Plata,  in  1541. 
Consult  Helps,  iii,  17-20. 

'  If  this  was  the  king's  quinto  it  shows  that  440,000  pesos  was  all  the  spoil  that  had 
been  obtained  in  Mexico  down  to  that  date. 


184  HISTORY    OF    THE    TRECIOUS    METALS 

In  1524  Cortes  left  the  now  rebuilt  city  and  capital  of  Mexico  in 
a  defenceless  state  for  the  purpose  of  despatching  a  party  of  Span- 
iards to  a  reported  gold  mine  in  Mechoacan.  The  report  came  from 
Alvarado,  who  at  the  same  time  was  ravaging  Mechoacan,  by  tortur- 
ingits  inhabitants  and  plundering  its  graves.  In  the  same  year  Cortes 
granted  encomiendas  of  Indies  to  his  followers,  in  defiance  of  an  ex- 
press prohibition  from  the  Crown.  Also  in  the  same  year,  he  sent 
Cristobal  de  Olid  to  make  a  raid  on  the  Indios  in  Honduras.  Olid, 
following  his  chief's  example,  turned  buccaneer  on  his  own  account. 
Cortes  tired  of  the  comparative  inactivity  which  followed  the  cap- 
ture of  the  capital,  and  anxious  to  add  to  those  spoils  which,  as  yet, 
had  fallen  far  short  of  his  expectations,  determined  to  follow  Olid,  and 
he  set  forth  with  an  expedition  from  Mexico,  to  sail  and  march  1,500 
miles  along  an  unknown  coast.  Fearing  to  trust  the  men  behind  him, 
he  carries  along  with  him  the  large  quantities  of  gold  and  silver  that 
remained  in  his  hands.  He  also  takes  with  him  Dona  INIarina,  as  in- 
terpreter, and  his  royal  captives,  the  Emperor  of  Mexico  (Monte- 
zuma's brother)  and  the  King  of  Tlacuba;  and  on  one  of  the  Carnival 
days  in  February,  1525,  and  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  puts  the 
two  captives  to  death  in  the  obscurity  of  an  Honduran  forest.  When 
led  to  execution  the  Emperor  of  Mexico  exclaimed,  "  Oh,  Malinche 
(Cortes),  it  is  long  that  I  have  known  the  falseness  of  your  words,  and 
have  foreseen  that  you  would  give  me  that  death,  which,  alas!  I  did 
not  give  myself  when  I  surrendered  to  you  in  my  city  of  Mexfco. 
Wherefore  do  you  put  me  to  death  without  justice?  May  God  de- 
mand the  like  of  you!  " 

Cortes  then  marches  through  and  ravages  Yucatan,  a  country  whose 
fertility,  government,  and  civilization  compared  favourably  with  those 
of  Spain  itself.  A  detachment  of  his  band,  under  command  of  his 
cousin,  Francisco  de  las  Casas,  overtakes  Olid,  and  assassinates  him; 
when  Cortes,  securing  all  the  spoil,  resolves  to  return  to  Mexico  by 
the  sea.  A  storm  drives  him  to  Havana,  and  he  only  reaches  Mexico 
in  1526,  there  to  learn  that  his  piratical  adventures  had  scandalized 
the  Crown  of  Spain,  and  induced  it  to  supercede  him  in  his  lately 
granted  authority.  In  November,  1525,  Ponce  de  Leon  had  been 
created  governor  of  New  Spain,  with  orders  to  proceed  thither  im- 
mediately, and  take  a  residencia  of  Cortes. '^ 

^  Helps,  III,  61.  The  residencia  (a  relic  of  the  Roman  government  in  Spain,  the  form 
of  which  survived  the  dark  ages)  was  an  inquiry  by  any  official  into  the  actions  of  his 
predecessor.  It  amounted  to  an  impeachment  before  the  sternest  of  judges,  although 
in  practice  it  was  often  circumvented.  The  Roman  residencia  in  Venice  is  mentioned 
as  of  the  year  1229,  in  Hazlitt,  11,  242,  ed.  1S5S. 


YUCATAN    ANU    HONDURAS.  1 85 

The  history  of  Cortes  docs  not  terminate  here;  for  icn  years  laier 
we  find  him,  with  the  incurable  habit  of  gold-seekers,  expending  his 
gains  in  new  expeditions,  this  time  to  California,  the  lower  portion 
of  which  he  was  actually  the  first  to  discover.  But  here  we  can  con- 
veniently agree  to  epitomise  the  close  of  his  career  in  Mexico. 

On  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  residencia  of  Cortes,  the  governor, 
Ponce  de  Leon,  dies  suddenly  of  poison,  and  the  residencia  is  broken 
off.  Marcos  de  Aguilar,  his  successor,  dies  two  months  after  his  ap- 
pointment— Bernal  Diaz  says  of  sickness — but  Diaz  was  one  of 
Cortes'  original  companions,  and  might  himself  have  assassinated 
Aguilar,  for  he  was  none  too  good  for  such  a  business.  To  Aguilar 
succeeds  Alonzo  de  Estrada.  With  him  Cortes  picks  a  violent  quar- 
rel, when  Estrada,  probably  fearing  the  same  fate  as  his  predeces- 
sors, sent  the  truculent  conquisador  to  Spain.  There  Cortes  con- 
trives to  make  favour  with  the  Court.  His  "specimens  of  the  riches 
and  the  curiosities  of  his  new  country  dispelled  at  once  the  vapours 
of  doubt  which  had  lately  obscured  his  name  and  deeds." 

He  is  made  Marquis  del  Valle, appointed  captain-general, or  military 
commander,  subject  to  the  civil  governor  of  New  Spain,  and  per- 
mitted to  return  thither,  which  he  does  in  1530.  In  a  recent  publica- 
tion called  "The  Silver  Country,"  Cortes  is  said  to  have  obtained 
;;^i, 200,000  of  spoil  in  Mexico;  but  we  have  not  been  able  to  find 
satisfactory  authority  for  this  statement. 

Being  charged  in  his  residencia  with  possessing  200  cuentos  of  rent 
— that  is,  with  encomiendas  of  Indios  yielding  200  cuentos  gold 
tribute  per  annum — he  offers  to  commute  his  encomiendas  for  20 
cuentos  of  cash  rent  in  New  Spain,  or  10  cuentos  in  the  mother  coun- 
try. In  September,  1538,  he  complains  that  he  has  not  means  enough 
to  live  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  must  reside  in  the  country.  His  In- 
dios had  probably  been  worked  to  death  by  this  time, and  the  "  rental" 
of  his  encomiendas  had  fallen  away.  In  1547,  having  meanwhile 
again  returned  to  Spain,  there  to  find  himself  shunned  at  the  Court, 
he  died  in  obscurity  and  poverty  in  the  sixty-third  year  of  his  age, 
leaving  behind  him  more  orphan  witnesses  of  his  cruelty  and  rapacity 
than  probably  man  ever  did  before. 

Under  date  of  August  14,  1531,  the  Spanish  auditor,  Quiroga,  sent 
to  the  Council  for  the  Indies  in  Spain  an  account  of  the  patience, 
diligence  and  docility  of  the  natives,  which,  in  view  of  the  atrocious 
cruelty  of  the  Spaniards,  is  most  affecting.  Alluding  to  the  orphaned 
condition  of  a  vast  proportion  of  the  people,  he  says  :  "They  are 
numerous  as  the  stars  of  heaven   and  the  sands  of  the  sea;  an  im- 


l86  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

mense  number  of  orphans  whose  fathers  and  mothers  have  perished 
in  the  mines  through  the  rigour  of  our  Spaniards." 

Sir  A.  G.  Ward  (ii,  697)  says  there  are  no  gold  or  silver  mines  in 
Yucatan ;  a  circumstance  which  may  account  for  its  ancient  wealth 
and  splendour,  in  which  respects  it  greatly  exceeded  all  the  native 
States  of  America.  This  is  not  said  in  disparagement  of  mining  as 
an  art,  but  of  mining  when  relied  upon  too  exclusively  as  a  source 
of  national  prosperity.  Many  of  the  Spanish  economical  writers  of 
the  17th  century  warned  their  countrymen  that  the  pursuit  of  mining 
was  a  certain  road  to  national  poverty.  To  say  nothing  of  their  own 
country,  the  many  recent  examples  before  them  of  Hispaniola,  Mex- 
ico, Darien  and  Peru,  rendered  this  conclusion  irresistible.  Their 
opinions  were  afterward  confirmed  by  the  observations  of  Antonio 
de  Uloa,  Adam  Smith  (r,  xi,  2),  J.  R.  McCulloch,  Dr.  Joseph  Town- 
send  {^Travels  in  Spain,  iii,  345),  and  others,  some  of  whom,  like  Uloa 
and  Townsend,  were  practical  engineers  and  miners,  as  well  as  phil- 
osophers and  men  of  affairs. 

But  although  there  were  no  mines  in  Yutacan,  the  conquerers  of 
the  country,  the  defacers  and  destroyers  of  its  ancient  monuments, 
managed  to  extract  from  it  a  considerable  quantity  of  gold.  This 
they  got  by  plundering  the  graves  of  the  natives.  In  recent  years  a 
number  of  native  graves,  which  had  been  overlooked  by  the  Span- 
iards, were  opened  at  a  place  called  Chiriqui,in  the  district  of  Veragua, 
on  the  Chiriqui  river  in  Costa  Rica,  lat.  8  10  N.  This  was  formerly  in- 
cluded in  Darien,  but  as  the  discovery  led  to  others  farther  north, 
.within  the  limits  of  Yucatan,  it  has  been  deemed  appropriate  to  re- 
cord it  under  the  latter  head. 

In  Veraguas  were  found  a  great  number  of  sepulchres  of  the  abori- 
gines, many  of  them  rich  in  relics,  and  which  soon  obtained  great 
celebricy  as  the  huacas  of  Chiriqui.  Considerable  quantities  of  gold 
ornaments  were  found  in  them,  and  for  a  time  the  region  in  which 
they  occur  was  thronged  with  adventurers  in  eager  search  for  these 
hidden  treasures.  The  amount  was  soon  discovered  to  be  e«agger- 
ated,  and  the  Chiriqui  fever  abated  as  rapidly  as  it  rose. 

The  so-called  huacas  (a  name  borrowed  evidently  from  Peru)  occur 
in  the  plains  as  well  as  on  the  slopes  of  the  Cordilleras  of  Ver- 
aguas, Chiriqui  and  Azuero,  and  on  the  islands  of  the  coasts,  and  are 
divided  into  two  classes,  Huacas  de  Filares,  or  pillar  graves,  marked 
by  rows  of  upright  stones,  sometimes  carved  in  imitation  of  men  or 
animals,  and  of  varying  dimensions;  and  Huacas  Tapadas,  covered 
graves,  consisting  of  mounds  overlaid  by  water-wora  stones.     The 


YUCATAi>f    AND     HONDURAS.  187 

deposits,  whether  of  human  remains,  pottery  or  objects  of  gold,  are 
always  to  be  found  at  the  bottom  of  the  grave — which  varies  in  depth 
from  six  to  fifteen  feet,  being  invariably  sunk  to  a  hard  substratum 
— and  contained  in  a  rough  coffin  or  box  of  flat  stones. 

The  pottery  and  the  metal  ornaments  deposited  in  these  graves  are 
now  about  all  that  remain,  the  bodies  of  the  dead  to  whom  they  be- 
longed, having,  in  most  instances,  wholly  disappeared.  Some  of  the 
vases  are  of  good  design  and  material.  They  are  often  accompanied, 
in  the  graves  of  females,  by  metlatls,  or  grinding-stones,  coinciding 
precisely  with  those  now  in  use  for  crushing  maize.  The  golden  ar- 
ticles are  various  in  shape — in  all  cases  cast,  but  with  certain  portions 
afterwards  wrought  into  shape.  All  have  projections  or  are  pierced, 
for  suspension,  and  many  present  evidences  of  having  been  worn  for 
long  periods.  In  shape  they  are  generally  representations  of  mvth- 
ologicaland  natural  objects,  peculiar  to  the  region  in  which  they  are 
found.  Similar  graves  have  been  found  in  Yucatan,  at  Chichen, 
Izamal,  Macoba,  and  Uxmal.  These  places,  however,  have  since  be- 
come more  interesting  and  valuable  for  their  architectural  remains. 
Seventy  years  ago  the  ruins  of  Uxmal  were  so  completely  unknown 
that  the  re-discovery  of  the  casus  grandcs  by  Dr.  Mitchell,  of  Sisal, 
and  Baron  de  Waldeck,  was  as  complete  a  surprise  to  the  citizens  of 
the  neighboring  town  of  Merida  as  the  exhumation  of  Pompeii  to  the 
burghers  of  Nola  and  Castellamare.  lUit  since  1830  Uxmal  has  been 
the  Mecca  of  American  antiquaries,  as  well  as  tiie  hunting-ground 
of  countless  seekers  after  buried  treasures.  Yet,  though  the  general 
character  of  the  ruins  is  now  tolerably  well  known,  it  is  clear,  from 
the  recent  researches  of  Plongeon,  that  any  reliable  interpretation  of 
the  inscriptions  is  still  a  desideratum.  The  traditions  of  Mexico  are 
as  silent  about  a  vast  and  wealthy  city  in  Western  Yucatan  as  are  the 
chronicles  of  the  Conquistadores.  Uxmal  is  a  corruption  of  Huas- 
acmal,  "  the  Main  City."  A  quarry  not  far  off  is  known  as  the  "  Man 
Killery,"  and  hard  by,  in  the  Sierra  de  Macoba,  is  a  plateau  named 
*'The  Field  of  Defeat,"  where,  if  not  closely  watched  by  the  priests, 
the  natives  still  celebrate  a  festival  enigmatically  known  as  the  Week 
of  Deliverance. 

In  Honduras  the  history  of  the  precious  metals  has  been  the  same 
as  in  all  the  Spanish-.Xmerican  countries:  first,  plunder  of  the  natives; 
secontl,  robbery  of  tlie  graves;  third,  placer  mining  with  slaves  (en- 
comiendas) ;  fourth,  vein  mining  with  slaves;  fifth,  revolution,  in- 
dependence, exhaustion  and  civil  commotion,  at  the  end  of  which, 
foreign  capital  with  hired  labourers  renews  the  search  for  gold.   The 


l88  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS, 

oldest  vein  mines  in  Honduras  are  those  of  the  Yuscaran,  and  among 
these  the  Malacate  mine  is  the  most  celebrated.  This  is  practically  a 
Silver  mine,  although  one-twelfth  of  the  value  of  the  ores  was  derived 
from  gold,  both  metals  being  found  in  the  same  matrix.  After  con- 
tinuing productive  for  centuries,  this  mine  was  abandoned  in  1845,  on 
account  of  a  slide.  About  1875  a  new  company  "expended  great 
sums"  in  clearing  away  the  stone  and  rubbish  with  which  the  shafts 
and  galleries  were  filled;  but  without  recovering  the  vein.  They  then 
sank  a  new  shaft  450  feet  deep,  and  tunnelled  1,800  in  a  horizontal 
direction,  with  no  greater  success.  After  continuing  the  search  for 
seven  years  it  was  finally  given  up  in  despair.  Although  vein  mines 
are  still  being  worked  in  various  places  throughout  Honduras,  the 
chief  mineral  product  is  gold  derived  from  placer  washings  by  the 
natives,  who  sell  their  dust  to  local  traders  for  $12  an  ounce,  its 
value  at  the  mint  being  $20.  At  best,  this  product  is  too  small  to  merit 
further  notice  in  the  present  connection.  The  State  of  Honduras  is 
poor  and  owes  a  large  debt,  upon  which  it  fails  to  pay  the  interest; 
while  the  currency  consists  of  base  silver  and  copper  coins. 

Although,  after  Yucatan  and  Honduras  had  been  plundered,  they 
were  too  poor  in  mines  to  yield  any  further  contributions  of  the  pre- 
cious metals  to  Spain,  yet  it  was  along  their  coast  lines  that  the  plate 
ships,  laden  with  the  metallic  produce  of  Chile,  Peru  and  Darien, 
were  sometimes  conveyed  to  Vera  Cruz,  there  to  be  augmented  by 
the  tribute  of  Mexico.  From  Vera  Cruz  the  fleet  sailed  to  Havana, 
where  it  was  joined  by  vessels  direct  from  Honduras,  Carthagena, 
and  other  places.  "The  ships  then  sail  through  the  Straits  of 
■  Bahama;  they  continue  their  course  to  the  height  of  New  England, 
and  after  sailing  for  a  long  time  in  this  latitude  of  forty  degrees, 
they  at  length  veer  to  the  south-east,  to  come  in  view  of  Cape  St. 
Vincent  and  to  proceed  to  Cadiz  .  .  .  From  1748  to  1753,  one 
year  with  another  (annnal  average),  New  Spain  sent  to  the  mother- 
country,  by  the  way  of  Vera  Cruz  and  Honduras,  $114,910  in  gold, 
$8,724,300  in  silver,  and  $3,693,084  in  merchandise,  at  the  price  in 
Europe  " — these  sums  being  deduced,  at  five  to  the  dollar,  from  the 
French  livres,  in  which  they  are  given  by  the  Abbe  Raynal,  iii,  423. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


GUATEMALA. 


Its  ancient  populousness,  wealth  and  civilization — All  destroyed  by  a  few  pold-seek- 
ers — Origin  of  its  invasion — Native  feuds — Alvarado  dispatched  to  Guatemala — His 
demands  for' gold — Wholesale  slaughter  of  the  natives — Enslavement  of  the  sur\'ivors 
—  Plentifulness  of  spoil — Prices  in  the  Spanish  camp — The  native  children  taxed  for 
gold — The  adults  forced  by  cruel  labour  in  the  mines  to  consume  one  another  for 
food — Alvarado's  death-bed  repentance. 

THE  populousness,  wealth,  and  civilization  of  Guatemala  were 
attested  by  many  evidences,  yet  all  these  w^ere  destroyed  in  a 
few  months  by  a  band  of  280  gold-hunters  under  Pedro  de  Alvarado. 

After  the  capture  of  Mexico  by  Cortes  in  1521,  a  number  of  chief- 
tains sent  ambassadors  to  him  to  treat  for  peace.  Among  these  was 
the  "King"  of  Mechoacan,  a  province  about  seventy  leagues  to  the 
south-west  of  Me.xico.  From  these  ambassadors  the  eager  ears  of 
Cortes  learnt  of  the  South  Sea  and  its  islands  abounding  in  gold, 
pearls,  precious  stones  and  spices.  These  stories  formed  the  basis 
of  Cortes'  expeditions  some  years  afterwards,  in  one  of  which  Cali- 
fornia was  discovered.  At  present  he  sends  a  party  of  soldiers  to 
view  the  sea,  e.xplore  the  intervening  country,  and  take  possession 
of  both.  This  is  done  in  1522,  nine  years  after  the  discovery  of  the 
same  sea  further  south  by  Vasco  Nunez.  To  get  at  the  sea  the  Span- 
iards passed  south  of  Mechoacan  through  Tehuantepec,  where  the 
terror  of  their  deeds  induced  other  native  chiefs  to  offer  their  sub- 
mission to  Cortes.  In  order  to  propitiate  his  favour  the  envoys  from 
Tehuantepec  mention  a  country  with  which  they  are  at  enmity,  and 
whose  riches  might  well  reward  the  researches  of  their  dread  visi- 
tors. It  was  through  these  native  quarrels,  due  to  the  prevalence 
of  feudalism,  that  Cortes,  like  his  ancient  jirototype  C;esar  in  Gaul, 
was  enabled  the  more  readily  to  plunder  the  country  to  which  he  had 
conducted  his  soldiers. 

Cortes  accordingly  sends  Alvarado  to  Guatemala  in  1522.  His  pro- 
ceedings are  of  the  usual  character.      The  innocent  natives  receive 


19° 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


him  with  kindness  and  hospitality.  He  then  demands  gold.  This  is 
given  him,  when  he  demands  more.  The  cacique  exclaims  that  there 
is  no  more — that  he  has  given  all.  Whereupon  Alvarado  threatens 
him  with  death  if  he  does  not  bring  more.  The  alarmed  chief  scours 
the  whole  country  for  gold,  and  collects  together  all  there  is  to  be 
found,  about  30,000  pesos.  This  is  given  to  the  Spanish  captain, 
who,  in  return,  treacherously  puts  the  cacique  in  prison,  where  he  dies. 
Even  Bernal  Diaz  exclaims  against  the  treachery  of  this  proceeding 
on  the  part  of  Alvarado ;  but  the  conquistadores  had  yet  something 
to  learn  of  treachery  from  Pizarro. 

Alvarado  then  ravages  the  country,  terrifying  the  inhabitants  of 
the  towns,  from  one  of  which  (Guatemala)  he  obtains  "magnificent 
presents  of  gold,  jewels,  and  provisions,  which,  it  is  said,  required 
no  fewer  than  5,000  men  (natives)  to  carry." 

He  then  puts  to  the  sword  as  many  of  30,000  natives  arrayed 
between  him  and  the  town  of  Quezaltenango  as  fail  to  secure  their 
safety  in  flight;  and  in  a  second  "battle"  nearer  to  the  town,  com- 
mits such  carnage  that  he  himself  says,  although  he  had  seen  some 
of  the  fiercest  "battles"  in  the  Indies,  he  caused  on  this  occasion  the 
greatest  destruction  of  life  that  had  ever  before  been  known  in  the 
world.  "  Nuestros  amigos,  i  peones  hacin  una  destruicion  la  maior 
delmundo."  Alvarado's  "Relacion."  He  then  enters  Utatlan,  where 
he  burns  the  chiefs,  razes  the  city  to  the  ground,  and  brands  the  in- 
habitants as  slaves;  in  his  own  words,  "the  lords  to  death,  and  the 
rest  as  slaves." 

Here  the  freebooters,  flushed  with  spoil,  wine  and  women,  resolve 
to  rest  and  enjoy  their  ease.  They  build  a  fortified  town,  whose  site, 
near  the  Volcan  de  Fuego,  can  be  seen  from  the  deck  of  every  steamer 
that  plies  between  Panama  and  San  Francisco,  and  founded  the  place 
with  a  grand  parade,  in  which  they  turned  out  and  marched,  adorned 
with  plumes  of  feathers,  and  gold  and  jewels.  The  plentifulness  of 
spoil  is  evinced  by  the  prices  that  obtained  among  them  even  in  this 
land  of  bountiful  crops;  for  a  pig  brought  seventeen  to  twenty  pesos  of 
.gold;  the  tailor  of  the  band  demanded  such  prices  for  his  handiwork 
that  each  movement  of  the  needle  was  worth  a  real;  and  the  shoe- 
maker from  his  earnings  might  go  shod  in  the  precious  metals.  Even 
a  year  later  eggs  were  worth  a  real  apiece. 

Alvarado,  now  appointed  by  Cortes  lieutenant-governor  and  cap- 
tain-general of  Guatemala,  remains  with  his  crew  in  their  new  settle- 
ment for  several  years,  compelling  the  natives  to  supply  them  with 
•  everything  they  required,  and  much  more  than  they  needed. 


GUATEMALA.  19' 

"The  unvaried  tradition  of  the  Indians  relates  that  the  lieuten- 
ant-governor imposed  upon  the  inluibitants  of  Patinamit,  or  Tecpan- 
Guatemala,  a  burden  that  could  not  be  borne.  It  was,  that  a  num- 
ber of  children,  boys  and  girls  (one  account  says  800),  should  each  of 
them  bring  him  daily  a  reed  full  of  golden  grains.  The  children 
played  about  like  children,  and  failed  to  bring  in  the  required  tribute. 
The  extortionate  governor  punished  or  threatened  to  punish  the 
adult  population."  These,  already  overburdened  with  similar  e.\- 
actions,  could  endure  their  sufferings  no  longer,  and  revolted,  with, 
of  course,  the  usual  consequences — death  on  all  sides,  death  by  thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands. 

"They  are  most  poor,"  writes  the  Bishop  of  Guatemala  to  the 
Emperor  Charles  V.  in  1539,  "having  only  a  little  maize,  a  grinding 
stone,  a  pot  to  boil  in,  a  hammock  and  a  little  hut  of  straw  with  four 
posts,  which  every  day  is  burnt  down." 

When  Alvarado  had  with  merciless  cruelty  drained  Guatemala  of 
its  pitiful  trinkets  of  gold,  he  abandoned  the  country,  and,  contrary 
to  the  orders  of  the  Crown,  joined  the  standard  of  Pizarro  in  Peru. 

It  is  related  of  this  monster  that  his  exactions  of  gold  and  the  la- 
bour that  he  compelled  the  Indios  to  perform  in  other  ways  gave 
them  no  rest,  not  even  enough  to  enable  them  to  cultivate  food  for 
themselves,  and  that  he  thus  forced  them  to  eat  one  another. 

After  receiving  his  death-blow'  Alvarado  lived  long  enough  to 
make  a  will,  which,  being  drawn  by  a  priest,  contains  many  confes- 
sions of  his  misdeeds,  all  of  which  are  sought  to  be  atoned  for  by 
offerings  to  the  Church.  He  had  unjustly  enslaved  and  branded  the 
natives,  therefore  he  leaves  them  in  an  encomienda,  whose  revenues 
shall  go  to  the  Church.  This  is  reparation,  indeed!  As  for  the 
slaves  in  the  mines,  also  unjustly  captured  and  branded,  he  piously 
declares  that  they  shall  continue  at  the  work  until  his  debts  are  paid; 
for  it  seems  that,  like  all  the  gold-hunters,  he  died  poor.  The  mur- 
ders he  has  committed  he  atones  for  by  a  present  of  500  golden  pesos 
to  be  sent  to  Castile,  and  there  used  for  the  redemption  of  christian 
captives  from  the  Moors. 

'  .Mvarado  went  to  Spain  in  1 527,  was  appointed  governor  of  Guatemala  and  en- 
nobled. He  returned  to  (iuatemala  in  1530.  In  1534  or  1535  he  declared  his  inten- 
tion of  joining  Pi/arro,  the  fame  of  whose  booty,  including  the  Ransf)m  of  the  Inca, 
was  noised  all  over  the  world.  Althoujjh  Alvarado  was  forbidden  by  the  C  rown,  he 
nevertheless  proceeded  in  spite  of  the  interdict.  Me  joined  I'izarro  and  was  well  paid 
for  his  assistance.  Me  returned  to  Guatemala  in  1535,  whence  he  set  out  upon  other 
expeditions  (on  the  Calif  ornian  Coast),  and  was  killed  in  1541.  After  his  death,  his  wife, 
l)ofta  Heatricede  la  Cueva.  whom  he  had  brought  out  from  Spain  on  his  last  voyage, 
was  chosen  by  the  IVovincial  Council  as  CJovcrnadora — the  first  instance  of  a  woman 
having  obtained  that  oflice,  or,  perhaps,  any  other,  anion^^t  Kuropeans  in  Aiiuric.i. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


PERU. 


Pizarro's  momentous  gold-seeking  partnership — Andagoya  reaches  Peru — Garcia's 
expedition — The  conquest  is  abandoned  for  a  time — Pizarro  undertakes  it — Suffer- 
ings of  his  command — Forays — The  partners  fall  out — The  memorable  chalk  line 
that  was  drawn  by  Tafur — Privations  of  Pizarro — He  reaches  Tumbez — Spoils  of 
gold  and  silver — The  richness  of  Peru — Pizarro  returns  to  Panama  to  prepare  for 
further  conquests  in  Peru — Pizarro  goes  to  Spain  for  troops,  supplies  and  authority — 
He  obtains  all  these,  and  in  addition  a  title  of  nobility — Returns  to  Panama  and  sails 
for  Peru — He  lands  upon  and  sweeps  through  the  devoted  country — Spoils — Civil 
feuds  in  Peru — Death  of  Huayna-Capac  and  dissensions  between  his  sons — Pizarro 
destroys  the  peaceful  city  of  Tumbez — Messengers  from  Atahualpa — Pizarro  artfully 
espouses  his  cause  and  betrays  him — Atahualpa's  naked  followers  put  to  the  sword 
and  himself  taken  prisoner — Pillage  of  the  Peruvian  camp — Atahualpa's  ransom — 
Enormous  booty — The  Inca  treacherously  murdered — The  empire  desolated  by  the 
Spaniards — Amazing  destruction  of  the  natives — The  sword,  the  bloodhounds,  and, 
worse  than  all,  the  mines — Encomiendas — The  mines  of  Potosi — Cost  of  gold  ob- 
tained by  conquest  and  slavery. 

IT  has  already  been  shown  that  the  search  for  Peru,  instigated  by 
the  chance  words  of  the  cacique  Comogre's  son,  was  purely  a 
commercial  speculation,  with  no  other  object  in  view  than  the  ac- 
quisition of  gold  and  silver.  The  fate  of  the  partnership  of  Ped- 
rarias  and  Vasco  Nunez  has  also  been  related,  and  so  have  been  the 
details  of  the  subsequent  partnership  arrangements  between  Ped- 
rarias,  De  Luque,  and  the  illiterate  gold-hunters  Pizarro  and  Alma- 
gro.  We  have  now  to  relate  what  came  of  this  bargain,  the  most 
momentous  the  world  has  ever  known;  for  it  involved  the  lives  of 
ten  to  fifteen  millions  of  people. 

Between  the  death  of  Vasco  Nunez  (15 17)  and  the  last-named 
partnership  arrangement  (1524),  Pedrarias,  in  1522,  had  sent  one 
Pascual  de  Andagoya  along  the  coast.  This  man  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing Peru,  and  there  gave  the  natives  an  indication  of  the  fierce  and 
reckless  character  of  the  strangers  with  whom  it  was  fated  that  be- 
fore many  years  they  should  have  to  contend  in  greater  numbers. 
Pascual  becoming  disabled,  and  Pedrarias  being  at  that  time  intent 
upon   a   gold   foray  into  Nicaragua,  the  Peruvian  project  was  laid 


PKRU.  193 

aside.  In  15:23.  Alexis  Garcia,  a  Portuguese  commander,  traversed 
Brazil  and  the  Gran  Chaco  of  La  Plata,  scaled  the  lofty  Andes  and 
succeeded  in  pillaging  Alto  Peru.  ("  Hist.  Monetary  .Systems,"  p. 
411.)  In  1524,  possibly  through  having  received  some  knowledge 
of  Garcia's  achievement,  the  project  of  invading  Peru  frt)m  the  sea 
was  again  entertained  by  Pizarro,  and  the  famous  tjuadripartite 
partnership  was  formed.  Pizarro  set  sail  with  one  vessel  (one  of 
those  built  by  Vasco  Nunez),  two  canoes,  eighty  men,  and  four  horse.s. 
These  forces  were  procured  at  great  exjiense — the  men  employed  to 
get  the  shi[)s  ready  for  sea  receiving  two  golden  pesos  a  day  and 
rations,  and  those  who  were  enlisted,  each  receiving  advances  of  fifty 
to  a  hundred  pesos  or  more. 

Off  the  coast  of  (the  subsequent)  New  Granada,  where  the  shores 
were  nothing  but  desert,  the  expedition  ran  short  of  provisions. 
After  eating  their  horses,  the  men  were  reduced  to  chewing  a  dry 
cowhide.  Here  twenty-seven  of  them  perished  from  starvation. 
Succour  arriving  from  Panama,  tliey  resumed  their  voyage,  and  land- 
ing at  Puerto  de  la  Candaleria,  scoured  the  country,  and  captured  a 
village,  where  they  made  their  first  haul  of  gold,  in  the  shape  of  some 
paltry  ornaments.  How  many  native  lives  were  sacrificed  to  obtain 
these  baubles  is  not  related. 

Frequent  repetition  of  these  incursions,  in  which  it  may  reason- 
ably be  conjectured  that  every  ounce  of  gold  cost  at  least  a  hundred 
native  lives,  afforded  the  Spaniards  in  the  end  enough  gold  to  war- 
rant their  sending  the  treasurer,  Nicolas  de  Rivera,  back  to  Panama 
with  the  spoil.  This  was  done  in  order  to  procure  reinforcements 
from  Pedrarias.  The  latter,  it  seems,  was  very  angry  when  he  heard 
that  so  many  Spaniards  had  perished  for  so  small  a  return  of  treasure. 
As  for  the  Indios  who  had  been  massacred,  these  do  not  appear  to 
have  been  worth  a  thought.  Before  this,  however,  Almagrohad  set 
sail  with  the  second  vessel  belonging  to  the  partnership,  and  finiling 
Pizarro  at  on«  of  the  little  ports  on  the  coast,  the  two  worthies  joined 
forces,  and  made  an  attack  upon  the  first  native  town  they  found 
large  enough  to  promise  any  gold.  This  was  on  the  San  Juan  river 
(lat.  4  N.).  They  slaughtered  a  number  of  Indios,  captured  others, 
and  got  altogether  the  material  of  15,000  pesos  in  gold  of  an  inferior 
description. 

This  spoil  being  sent  to  Panama  by  the  hands  of  Almagro,  pro- 
cured them  in  return  a  further  reinforcement  of  forty  men  and  more 
provisions,  contributed,  for  a  consideration,  by  the  new  governor  of 
that  province,  Pedro  de  los  Rios. 


194  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

This  was  in  1526,  Down  to  this  time  the  Peruvian  exploration 
company  had  been  nothing  except  loss.  Upon  Almagro's  return  from 
the  San  Juan  river  raid  he  had  evidently  concealed  some  of  the  spoil 
from  Pedrarias,  for  instead  of  paying  him  part  of  the  15,000  pesos, 
he  came  to  ask  for  aid.  The  fact  that  Pedrarias  was  going  out  of 
olifice  also  made  him  insolent,  for  he  told  the  governor  that  his  only 
contribution  to  the  funds  of  the  partnership  had  been  a  single  she- 
calf.  This  made  Pedrarias  angry.  He  reminded  Almagro  of  the  many 
soldiers  whose  lives  had  been  sacrificed  in  the  enterprise,  and  whose 
aid,  but  for  his  (Pedrarias')  official  countenance,  the  expedition  would 
not  have  secured,  and  wound  up  by  demanding  4,000  pesos  to  go  out. 
After  some  hot  altercation,  Almagro  signed  a  bond  to  pay  Pedrarias 
1,000  pesos  "to  renounce  all  rights  and  claims  to  the  enterprise  of 
Almagro  and  Company."  (Oviedo,  "Hist.  Ind.,"  lib.  29,  cap.  23.) 

Meanwhile,  Bartolome  Ruiz,  Pizarro's  pilot,  pushes  down  the  coast 
as  far  as  Zalongo  (near  Puerto  Viejo?),  captures  some  castaway  natives 
on  a  raft,  from  whom  he  gets  some  gold  trinkets,  hears  of  the  great 
king  Huayna-Capac  and  the  famous  city  of  Cusco,  where  there  is 
much  gold;  and  returns  to  San  Juan  where  Pizarro  has  remained. 
The  commander  has  meantime  lost  fourteen  men  in  foraging  for  gold  ; 
and  the  rest  are  much  reduced  from  sickness  and  privation.  Rein- 
forced by  Almagro's  recruits,  they  all  re-embark,  and  push  down  the 
coast  to  Tacamez,  where  they  again  raid  on  the  natives,  procuring  a 
little  gold,  and  as  many  women  as  they  desire. 

At  this  point  Almagro  and  Pizarro  quarreled — probably  over  the 
division  of  the  gold — Pizarro  claiming  that  all  the  privations  had 
been  his,  and  declaring  that  he  would  return  to  Panama.  High  words 
passed  between  them,  and  swords  were  drawn;  but  after  a  stormy 
scene, and  much  crimination,  they  became  reconciled.  They  returned 
to  the  island  of  Gallo,  a  little  to  the  north  of  Tacamez,  whence  Al- 
magro sailed  to  Panama  for  additional  succour.  Whilst  the  com- 
manders were  sustained  by  sanguine  hopes  of  "discovering  that 
which  would  enrich  them  all,"  the  men,  worn  out  by  privation,  de- 
sired to  return  to  Panama.  One  of  them  contrived  to  send  a  secret 
message  to  the  Governor,  in  which,  alluding  to  the  exposure  of  him- 
self and  his  comrades  (not  an  allusion  to  their  continual  slaughter  of 
Indies),  he  calls  Almagro  the  salesman  and  Pizarro  the  butcher. 

This  message  resulted  in  the  despatch  of  a  lawyer,  named  Tafur,  to 
the  island  of  Gallo,  there  to  enable  the  men  freely  to  choose  whether 
they  would  return  or  remain  with  the  commanders.  Tafur  reaches 
Gallo,  goes  on  board  Pizarro's  vessel,  draws  a  chalk  line  on  the  deck, 


PERU.  195 

and  tells  the  men  to  choose.  Fourteen  men,  amongst  whom  was  a 
native  of  Crete,  and  a  mulatto  slave,  stood  by  the  side  of  Pizarro; 
the  rest  returned  to  Panama. 

With  his  reduced  company  Pizarro  went  to  a  small  island  called 
Gorgona;  and  Almagro  returned  to  Panama  to  endeavour  to  obtain 
other  recruits  and  supplies.  Three  months  passed  away  before  he 
succeeded.  On  his  return  to  Gallo  he  found  Pizarro  and  his  com- 
pany in  a  pitiful  condition,  having  during  many  weeks  subsisted  on 
shellfish  found  upon  the  beach,  and  oi-her  precarious  supplies  of  food. 

The  marauders  now  pushed  further  down  the  coast,  passing  in  view 
of  the  towering  summits  of  Chimborazo  and  Cotopaxi,  though  no- 
thing of  this  was  said  in  their  narratives;  their  minds  been  fi.xed  less 
upon  such  sublime  marvels  of  nature  as  upon  "gold,  rich  stuffs  and 
precious  stones."  In  the  course  of  twenty  days,  having  meanwhile 
frequently  landed  and  scoured  the  country  to  little  purpose,  they  ar- 
rived at  the  town  of  Tumbez,  in  the  bay  of  Guayaquil;  and  here  for 
the  first  time  they  came  upon  undoubted  signs  of  the  objects  of 
their  search. 

At  a  small  island  which  they  had  passed  the  day  before,  the  Span- 
iards had  found  and  pillaged  a  native  temple,  containing  a  stone 
image  and  rich  offerings  of  gold  and  some  silver  pieces,  wrought  into 
the  shape  of  "  hands,  women's  breasts,  and  heads,  a  large  silver  jug, 
which  held  an  arroba  (four  gallons)  of  water,"  etc.  At  Tumbez, 
where  they  were  received  with  wonderment  and  hospitality  (the  place 
was  too  strong  to  attack),  they  beheld  a  fortress  with  six  or  seven 
walls,  aqueducts,  many  houses  of  stone,  and  vessels  of  silver  and  gold. 
Being  invited  into  the  temple  and  palace  (for  Tumbez  was  a  water- 
ing-place where  the  Inca,  Huayna-Capac,  occasionally  dwelt),  they 
perceived  that  the  former  was  lined  with  plates  of  gold,  the  latter 
filled  with  gold  and  silver  vessels,  furniture,  etc.,  and  the  gardens 
ornamented  with  golden  statues. 

The  Spaniards  resolved  to  start  for  Panama,  and  return  with  forces 
enough  to  destroy  this  peaceful  and  hospitable  town,  slaughter  its  in- 
habitants, and  capture  the  gold  it  contained.  Before  putting  this 
design  into  execution  they  sailed  down  the  coast  a  little  farther,  went 
ashore,  where  they  were  received  with  the  usual  hospitality,  and  ob- 
tained a  couple  of  native  boys,  who  were  taught  on  the  voyage  and 
at  Panama  to  speak  Spanish,  with  the  view  of  employing  them  as  in- 
terpreters in  the  projected  expedition  against  Peru.  This  being  done, 
they  sped  back  to  Panama,  where  they  arrived  at  the  end  of  the  year 
1527,  freighted  with  great  news. 


196  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

At  Panama  the  partners  Almagro,  Pizarro,  and  De  Luque,  discus- 
sing their  prospects,  agreed  that  before  all  things  it  was  necessary 
that  Pizarro  should  go  to  the  Court  of  Spain.  What  was  wanted  was 
a  clear  title  to  their  discovery,  free  from  any  claims  on  the  part  of 
the  governor  of  Panama;  and  more  aid  in  the  shape  of  men  and  pro- 
visions than  either  the  governor  could  afford  them  or  their  now  nearly 
exhausted  means  could  procure.  Pizarro  accordingly  went  to  Spain, 
where  he  was  so  successful  that  in  January,  1530,  he  sailed  from  Se- 
ville with  two  ships  and  125  men.  with  the  latter  of  whom  he  duly 
reached  Panama.  The  story  he  had  to  tell  his  partners  was  not  over- 
pleasing  to  them,  particularly  Almagro,  for  it  seems  that  in  his  rep- 
resentations to  the  Court,  Pizarro  had  omitted  their  part  in  the  en- 
terprise, and  had  so  enlarged  upon  his  own  that  he  had  been  created 
a  Knight  c  f  Santiago,  and  had  obtained  the  sole  Governorship  (Ade- 
lantado)  of  Peru'  for  himself.  For  De  Luque  he  had  obtained  the 
bishopric  of  Tumbez  (the  Inca's  little  sea-side  resort,  as  yet  uncon- 
scious of  the  fatal  distinction  conferred  upon  it) ;  for  Almagro,  who 
had  lost  an  eye  in  one  of  their  gold  forays,  and  wno  had  therefore 
fared  worse  than  either  of  his  partners,  nothing.  More  than  this,  Piz- 
arro had  brought  out  with  him  four  of  his  own  brothers,  a  circumstance 
that  did  not  help  to  allay  the  discontent  and  jealousy  of  Amagro. 

However,  a  peace  was  again  patched  up  between  the  confederates, 
and  their  new  expedition  was  prepared  for  sea.  Consisting  of  three 
vessels,  183  men,  and  thirty-seven  horses,  it  set  sail  December  28, 
1530  (Feast  of  the  Innocents),  and  in  three  days  reached  San  Mateo, 
where  Pizarro  landed  his  forces  and  commenced  that  march  through 
the  country  which  was  to  end  in  the  subjugation  of  an  empire  and  the 
destruction  of  millions  of  human  lives. 

The  story  can  henceforth  be  told  more  rapidly.  Pizarro  now  had 
force  enough,  especially  in  the  thirty-seven  horses,  to  sweep  all  be- 
fore him.  He  was  resolved  to  grasp  at  every  grain  of  gold  and  silver 
which  the  country  contained;  no  matter  at  what  cost  of  life  or  suf- 
fering. He  had  toiled  and  hungered  in  this  enterprise  for  six  years, 
and  now  that  his  reward  was  within  sight  he  resolved  to  take  it. 

From  San  Mateo  he  marches  upon  the  town  of  Coaque,  which  he  puts 
to  the  sword,  capturing  trinkets  amounting  to  15,000  pesos  in  gold, 
1,500  marks  in  silver,  and  many  emeralds.  These  he  sends  to  Panama 
and  Nicaragua,  to  procure  further  reinforcements  of  men  and  horses. 
It  is  seven  months  before  the  latter  arrive.      Meanwhile  a  civil  war 

'"Two  hundred  leagues  down  the  coast  from  Tenumpuela  (island  of  Puna)  to 
Chincha."  The  wording  was  important,  for  it  gave  rise  to  the  feuds  between  Alma- 
gro and  Pizarro,  in  which  much  blood  was  shed. 


PERU.  197 

in  Peru,  unknown  to  Pizarro,  is  sapping  the  basis  of  the  empire  and 
preparing  it  for  his  hands;  Huayna-Capac  is  dead  and  his  two  sons 
are  quarrelling  for  the  throne.  Upon  the  arrival  of  his  reinforce- 
ments Pizarro  ravages  many  villages  on  his  way  to  the  bay  of  Guaya- 
quil. Arriving  there,  he  puts  off  to  the  island  of  Puna  on  rafts,  and 
is  received  with  hospitality  and  presents  of  gold  and  silver  by  the 
chief  curaca,  a  Peruvian  title  corresponding  to  cacique.  In  return, 
he  seizes  upon  the  curaca  and  his  sons  under  pretence  that  an  attack 
upon  him  was  being  planned,  and  after  duly  terrifying  them,  sets  the 
chief  free,  in  order  to  avoid  alarming  the  people  of  Tumbez.  He 
then  sets  off  for  Tumbez,  establishes  himself  in  a  couple  of  adjacent 
forts,  and  after  some  preparation  attacks  and  puts  the  town  and  the 
surrounding  country  to  the  sword,  plundering  right  and  left,  and  dis- 
tributing the  surviving  Indios  into  repartimientos.  This  is  in  May, 
1532.  More  reinforcements  arrive  from  Panama,  and  Pizarro  sends 
by  the  return  vessels  tlie  king's  Fifth  of  the  spoil,  and  with  his  own 
share  pays  for  his  supplies. 

In  September,  1532,  Pizarro  marched  upon  Cassamarca,  plundered 
the  Indios  on  the  way,  and  applied  torture  to  compel  them  to  reveal 
where  he  might  find  more  gold.  Midway  between  San  Miguel  and 
Cassamarca  messengers  come  from  Atahualpa,  that  son  of  Huayna- 
Capac  who  had  succeeded  in  possessing  himself  of  this  portion  of 
Peru.  They  bring  presents  of  gold  and  precious  stones  and  tenders 
of  welcome.  Pizarro  in  return  offers  to  espouse  the  cause  of  Ata- 
huallpa  against  his  usurping  brother.  It  was  the  artifice  of  the  ages: 
divide  ct  itnpcra. 

Pizarro  then  pushes  on,  and  entering  Cassamarca,  there  occupies 
the  palace,  fortifies  himself  and  sends  an  insolent  message  to  the 
Inca,  who,  with  his  army,  is  in  the  field  a  league  distant,  bidding  him 
to  come  to  him.  His  envoys  are  Fernando  de  Soto  and  Fernando 
Pizarro,  the  latter  of  whom  tells  the  Inca  that  a  single  one  of  their 
enchanted  horses  was  sufficient  to  subdue  the  whole  country.  The 
Inca  smiles  at  the  threat  implied  in  these  words,  but  promises  to 
come.  This  he  does,  and  the  Peruvian  and  Spanish  chiefs  meet  at 
Cassamarca,  Atahualpa  attended  by  5,000  naked  and  unarmed  men, 
led  by  captains  wearing  (alas !)  golden  crowns  and  armour,  themselves 
carrying  arrows  barbed  with  the  same  metal.  It  may  be  stated  in 
this  place  that  the  most  highly  esteemed  metal  of  the  Peruvianswas 
copper,  and  the  Inca  wondered,  after  seeing  that  the  Spaniards  pos- 
sessed glass,  which  he  considered  far  more  desirable  than  gold,  why 
they  had  come  so  far  and  behaved  so  ill,  for  comparatively  useless 


198  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

materials  like  gold  and  silver.  Truly  did  Aristotle  observe  that  the 
value  of  gold  is  a  mere  matter  of  convention. 

Having  induced  the  Inca  and  his  principal  men  to  venture  within 
his  lines,  Pizarro  proceeded  to  execute  an  abominable  act  of  impiety, 
treachery  and  murder.  The  proceeding  is  thus  related  by  the  Abbe 
Raynal: 

It  was  arranged  that  Pizarro  was  to  command  the  troops,  Almagro 
superintend  the  commissariat,  and  De  Luque  supply  the  means.  This 
partnership  of  ambition,  avarice  and  ferocity  was  completed  by  fan- 
aticism. De  Luque  publicly  consecrated  a  Host,  part  of  which  he 
ate  and  divided  the  remainder  among  his  two  associates;  all  three 
swearing  by  the  Blood  of  God  that  to  enrich  themselves  they  would 
spare  neither  age  nor  sex.  ...  At  Cassamarca,  Atahualpa  sent 
the  Spaniards  fruits,  corn,  emeralds  and  several  vases  of  gold  or 
silver,  begging  them  to  depart  and  that  on  the  next  day  he  would 
come  in  person  to  arrange  for  their  peaceful  withdrawal.  Pizarro's 
reply  was  to  place  his  forces  in  ambush.  He  planted  his  cavalry  in 
the  gardens  of  the  palace  where  they  could  not  be  seen;  his  infantry 
was  stationed  in  the  court;  his  artillery  was  pointed  toward  the  gate 
by  which  the  Emperor  was  to  enter.  Atahualpa  came  without  sus- 
picion. He  was  carried  on  a  throne  of  gold.  Turning  to  his  prin- 
cipal officers,  he  said:  "  These  strangers  claim  to  be  the  messengers 
of  God;  be  careful  not  to  offend  them." 

Then  Father  Vicente  de  Valverdo,  crucifix  in  hand,  advanced  to- 
ward the  Emperor  and  read  to  him  the  Requerimiento  which  was 
duly  translated  by  the  interpreter,  Philipillo.  The  monk  wound  up 
by  demanding  submission  and  tribute,  under  penalty  of  fire  and  sword. 
What  the  Emperor  thought  of  this  mingled  tissue  of  falsehood, 
impudence  and  avidity  we  know  not,  but  listening  to  it  with  some 
show  of  patience  and  politeness  he  replied:  "I  am  very  willing  to 
become  a  friend  to  the  King  of  Spain,  but  not  his  vassal.  Your  Pope 
must  surely  be  a  most  extraordinary  man  to  give  so  liberally  what 
does  not  belong  to  him.  I  shall  not  change  my  religion  at  your  bid- 
ding; and  if  the  christians  adore  a  God  who  died  upon  a  cross,  I  wor- 
ship one  who  never  dies — the  Sun. "  He  then  asked  Vicente  where  he 
got  his  title  to  the  command  of  the  earth.  "  In  this  book,"  replied 
the  monk,  presenting  his  breviary  to  the  Emperor.  Atahualpa  took 
the  book,  examined  it  on  all  sides,  fell  a-laughing  and  throwing  it 
away,  added,  "Neither  this  nor  any  other  writing  conveys  a  title  to 
the  earth."  He  then  reminded  the  Spaniards  that  they  had  already 
pillaged  the  country,  and  he  demanded  back  the  spoils  they  had  taken. 


PERU.  199 

Upon  this,  Father  Vicente  turned  to  Pizarro  and  bade  him  make 
no  delay.  Pizarro  then  lets  loose  his  bloodthirsty  followers  (there 
were  about  350  of  them),  slaughters  2,000  of  the  Inca's  attendants, 
including  women  and  children,  and  takes  the  Inca  himself  prisoner 
with  3,000  others;  the  Spanish  injuries  amounting  merely  to  one 
horse  wounded;  from  which  circumstance  it  is  evident  that  the  na- 
tives, however  numerous  they  might  be,  had  no  means  of  defending 
themselves  against  their  treacherous  invaders.  "  When  the  Spaniards 
returned  from  this  infamous  massacre,  they  passed  the  night  in  drunk- 
enness, dancing  and  debauchery."  Next  day  Pizarra  pillages  the 
Inca's  camp  and  gets  80,000  pesos  of  gold,  a  lot  of  silver  utensils, 
emeralds,  women  and  provisions. 

Atahualpa,  an.xious  for  his  liberty,  and  observing  that  the  chief 
concern  of  the  christians  was  to  obtain  gold,  offers  for  his  Ransom 
to  fill  the  room  of  his  imprisonment  as  high  as  he  could  reach,  eight 
or  nine  feet,  with  gold,  if  they  gave  him  two  months'  time.  This 
stupendous  offer  being  very  readily  accepted,  arrangements  were 
made  to  receive  the  Ransom.  Pizarro  now  obtains  from  Panama 
reinforcements  of  six  vessels,  160  men,  and  84  horses.  Fernando 
Pizarro  goes  to  Pachacamac  for  the  Ransom  and  gets  27  loads  of 
gold  and  2,000  marks  of  silver.  Three  soldiers  are  sent  to  Cusco 
for  another  installment  of  the  Ransom,  and  there  behave  with  the 
greatest  insolence,  avarice  and  incontinence.  So  far  the  gold  alone 
amounted  to  1,326,539  pesos  of  pure  metal.  The  gold  and  silver 
eventually  amounted  in  value  to  about  §4,500,000.  When  it  was 
all  paid,  the  Inca,  instead  of  being  liberated,  was  loaded  with  chains, 
condemned  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote  of  the  Spaniards  to  be  done 
to  death,  tied  to  a  stake  and  murdered  with  a  cross-bowstring. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  the  present  work  to 
pursue  the  terrible  story  any  farther.  The  fate  of  Peru  may  be 
summed  up  in  a  few  words.  At  the  period  of  the  Spanish  Conquest 
it  contained  perhaps  fifteen,  certainly  from  ten  to  eleven  millions 
of  inhabitants.  By  the  year  1550  several  millions  of  them  had  been 
destroyed.  Antiguedades  Peruanas,  c.  iii.,  pp.  65,  146//.  When  these 
people  were  counted  under  the  general  census  ordered  by  Felipe 
II.,  their  numbers  had  fallen  to  8,280,000.  In  the  course  of  two 
centuries  they  had  diminished  to  fewer  than  1,079,122.  Father  Dom- 
ingo, who  is  quoted  further  on,  says  one-half  to  two-thirds  were  ex- 
ploited ;  over  such  an  enormity  charity  almost  prefers  to  throw  a  veil. 

According  to  Malte-Brun,  the  first  Spanish  census  was  taken  in 
1551,  and  including  Santa  Fe  and  Bogota,  the  population  of  Peru  at 


20O  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

that  period  was  8,255,000.  B}'  Santa  Fe  and  Bogota  is  understood 
all  of  New  Granada,  now  divided  into  New  Granada  and  Equador. 
This  included  Spaniards  and  other  Europeans,  as  well  as  negroes, 
mulattos  and  mestizos.  The  same  author  gives  for  the  population 
of  New  Granada  (now  New  Granada  and  Equador),  in  1808,  1,800,- 
000  souls,  including  Europeans.  If  these  countries  be  included  in  the 
limits  of  ancient  Peru,  there  existed  in  all  of  them  towards  the  close 
of  the  i8th  century  not  more  than  2,500,000  Indios  and  mixed  races 
of  partly  native  blood.  Deduct  this  number  from  the  original  fifteen 
millions  and  the  remainder  marks  the  number  destroyed  by  the  sword, 
the  mines  and  the  dogs. 

Father  Las  Casas,  who,  though  "fervid  in  condemnation,  is  not 
noted  for  inaccuracy  or  carelesness  in  his  statements  of  fact,"  de- 
clared ("  Destruycion  de  los  Indios,"  p.  5)  that  in  the  first  forty  years 
after  the  discovery  of  America,  twelve  or  fifteen  millions  of  the  na- 
tives had  been  destroyed  by  the  infernal  work  of  the  christians,  "in- 
fernales  obras  de  los  cristianos. "  Sir  Arthur  Helps  prefers  to  extend  his 
view  to  the  first  sixty  years  and  to  count  the  extermination  at  twelve 
millions.  Of  this  frightful  waste  of  life  about  one-half  each  may  fairly 
be  apportioned  to  Mexico  and  Peru.  When  the  principal  cause  of 
the  amazing  depopulation  is  demanded,  there  is  but  one  answer:  the 
mines.  From  the  moment  that  the  Inca  was  murderea,  the  cruel 
work  began.  Thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  peaceful 
Indios  were  murdered  in  cold  blood;  the  land  was  ransacked  for 
gold;  and  in  this  search  neither  age  nor  sex  was  spared.  Before  that 
search  ended,  by  which  every  ounce  of  metal  which  the  unhappy 
nation  had  ever  possessed  was  secured  by  the  Spaniards,  the  former 
were  reduced  to  the  most  wretched  slavery  and  compelled  by  mil- 
lions to  work  in  the  mines,  while  every  grave  in  Peru  was  violated 
in  the  search  for  gold. 

The  repartimiento,  a  grant  of  the  services  of  the  conquered  to  the 
conqueror,  was  probably  of  Roman  imperial  origin.  In  Candia,  dur- 
ing the  13th  century,  the  Venetians  apportioned  the  conquered  na- 
tives among  their  soldiers,  and,  parcelled  out  the  land  in  cavallerias, 
and  fanterias  (Hazlitt).  A  similar  practice  was  pursued  by  the  Span- 
iards towards  the  conquered  Moors.  It  is  mentioned  by  Al  Ma- 
kari  in  his  History  of  Spain.  Columbus  introduced  it  into  His- 
paniola  in  1496.  Repartimientos,  afterwards  called  encomiendas,  of 
Indios  were  at  first  granted  by  the  Spanish  authorities  to  the  con- 
quistadores  for  one  life;  in  1536  for  two  lives,  i.e.,  during  the  lives 
of  the  first  grantee  and  of  his  successor;  then  they  were  abolished, 


I'EKU.  201 

then  granted  again  for  two  lives,  then  confiscated  by  the  Crown;  in 
1559  they  were  granted  for  three  lives,  in  1607  for  four  lives,  anil  in 
1629  for  five  lives.  The  enconiiendadid  not  convey  any  land:  only  the 
personal  services  of  the  conquered  Indios.  Land,  however,  and  until 
about  a  hundred  years  after  the  Conquest,  was  given  by  the  Crown 
of  Spain  for  nothing;  the  horse-soldier  receiving  a  cavalieria  and 
the  foot-soldier  a  peonia,  etc. 

At  first  the  slavery  of  the  Indios  was  absolute.  Under  this  system 
they  died  so  fast  that  towards  the  beginning  of  the  17th  century  tlie 
Spanish  government  established  the  Mita.  By  this  law  only  the 
Indios  of  the  ages  from  eighteen  to  fifty  were  compelled  to  work  in 
the  mines,  but  of  these  only  one-seventh  were  to  work  for  a  period 
of  six  months,  when  they  were  to  be  succeeded  by  another  detach- 
ment of  one-seventh;  so  tliat  the  same  individual  would  only  work 
once  in  three-and-a-half  years.  He  must,  moreover,  be  paid  half  a 
dollar  a  day.  But  these  regulations  were  evaded  by  the  Spaniards, 
and  in  effect  the  labour  was  unremitting.  The  value  of  a  man  was 
reckoned  at  three  sheep;  of  a  woman  and  child,  a  sheep  and  a  lamb. 
(Charlevoix,  11,  103.) 

In  the  Munoz  collection  of  manuscripts  relating  to  Peru,  there  is 
a  letter  written  to  the  King  of  Spain  by  Father  Domingo  de  Santo 
Tomas,  dated  1550.  In  tiiis  letter  the  writer  alludes  to  himself  as  a 
poor  monk  whose  duty  did  not  require  him  to  look  into  such  matters, 
but  whom  pity  and  Christian  charity  did  not  permit  to  witness  them 
in  silence.  He  lived  in  Peru,  and  he  says  that  in  ten  years  one-half 
or  even  two-thirds  "of  men,  cattle,  and  the  works  of  men  "  had  been 
destroyed.  Hoy  ha  diez  anos  que  ha  que  yo  entre  in  ella,  hasta  ahora 
no  hai  al  presente  la  mitad  i  de  muchas  cosas  del  las  ni  aun  de  tres 
partes  la  una,  sino  que  todo  se  ha  acabado.  In  the  course  of  this 
letter  the  monk  gives  an  elaborate  account  of  the  horrible  sufferings 
and  privations  of  the  Indi(;s  in  the  mines  of  Potosf,  and  his  conclu- 
sion is:  "  Se  mueren  los  pobres  como  animales  sin  dueno  . 
los  que  de  esto  se  cscapan  jamas  buelben  a  sus  tierras."  The  poor 
creatures  died  like  cattle,  and  even  the  few  who  escaped  alive  never 
reached  their  homes. 

Those  who  may  wish  to  view  for  themselves  the  fiendish  cruelties 
which  were  practised  by  the  Spaniards  in  Peru  will  find  plenty  of 
material  in  the  Fourth  volume  of  Sir  Arthur  Helps'  "Spanish  Con- 
quest in  America  "  My  uncle,  Don  Manuel,  who  was  Sir  Arthur's 
collaborator  in  the  preparation  of  this  great  work,  told  me  that  his 
eyes  were  often  filled  with  tears  when  he  recorded  them.     Hut  let  us 


202  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

hear  Giovanni  Botero,  who  lived  two  centuries  and  a-half  nearer  than 
Sir  Arthur  did  to  the  period  of  these  cruelties,  and  who  probably  con- 
versed with  numerous  returned  friars  and  other  eye-witnesses  of  the 
transactions  in  America. 

"  The  natives  (of  the  Indies)  have  small  regard  for  gold,  silver  or 
minerals,"  yet  "authors  who  have  described  this  continent  inform 
you  of  nothing  but  gold-yielding  rivers,  seas  abounding  with  pearls 
and  lands  with  gems.  .  .  .  But,  alas!  avarice  and  depravity, 
under  the  mask  of  religion  and  vainglory,  had  no  sooner  set  foot  in 
this  paradise  than  all  things  were  turned  topsy-turvy.  Since  then 
happiness  hath  taken  flight  and  now  nothing  is  recorded  of  it  save 
the  undermining  of  mountains,  disembowelling  the  earth,  transport- 
ing the  natives,  and  depopulating  the  towns,  and  that  by  tyranny  and 
slavery."  ,  .  ,  The  Spaniards  "are  the  robbers  and  ravishers 
of  the  world.  ,  .  .  The  treasures  of  the  conquered,  breeds  in 
them  covetousness;  their  weakness,  breeds  ambition.  Neither  the 
West  nor  the  East  can  satiate  them.  They  covet  the  wealth  and  the 
power  of  all  nations  with  equal  greed  and  hypocrisy.  On  robbery, 
murder  and  villiany  they  impose  the  false  title  of  Empire.  Solitude 
they  term  peace,  and  desolation,  tranquility.  Had  not  Charles  V.  cast 
strict  reins  upon  their  avidity  the  Indies  had  been  quite  depopulated 
and  Spain  filled  with  slaves.  Of  400,000  natives  living  in  Hispan- 
iola  upon  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards,  they  now  can  scarce  show  you 
8,000.  About  the  like  number  you  shall  find  in  the  Honduras  re- 
maining of  410,000  when  the  Spaniards  therein  first  set  footing.  If 
you  even  read  their  own  books  you  shall  meet  with  no  better  accounts 
concerning  Guatemala,  Nicaragua,  etc.,  the  greater  part  of  whose 
inhabitants  are  either  slain,  enslaved  or  consumed  in  the  mines.  But 
the  progeny  of  the  natives  is  not  quite  extirpated,  and  some  day  they 
will  arise  and  throw  off  the  hated  yoke  of  their  oppressors."  A  pro- 
phecy which  was  remarkably  verified  two  centuries  later! 

The  precious  metals  obtained  by  the  Peruvians  previous  to  the 
Spanish  conquest  consisted  nearly  altogether  of  gold  secured  by 
washing  the  river  gravels.  No  native  shafts  were  found.  A  few 
excavations  had  been  made  into  the  sides  of  hills  with  outcrops  of 
native  gold  or  silver.  Of  this  character  were  the  superficial  workings 
at  Porcos  (district  of  Potosi),  from  which  Prescott  rather  lightly  says 
they  obtained  "considerable  returns,"  implying  that  such  returns 
were  of  silver.  It  is  probable,  that  like  many  silver  leads  in  the 
Sierras  and  Cordilleras  (for  example,  the  Comstock  Lode  of  Nevada), 
the  top  of  the  Porcos  vein  only  yielded  gold ;  and  that  little  or  no  silver 


PKkf, 


•03 


was  obtained  from  it  until  the  shaft,  begun  by  Hernando  Pizarro,  in 
1539, carried  the  workings  into  silver  ore.  Between  this  date  and  1544, 
Gonzalo  Pizarro  was  at  Charcas  "  busily  employed  in  exploring  the 
rich  veins  of  Potosi."  (Prescott).  A  Spanish  law  relating  to  the 
mining  district  of  Potosi,  dated  1535,  is  still  extant.  The  district  was 
registered  in  1545.  It  is  this  last  date  which  in  works  of  reference 
is  erroneously  given  for  that  of  the  discovery.  The  story  of  the  In- 
dian who  discovered  the  mines  of  Potosi  by  the  accidental  displace- 
ment of  a  shrub  to  which  he  had  clung  in  ascending  the  mountain, 
may  be  dismissed  to  the  realms  of  fiction.  It  is  possible  that  the 
brothers  Pizarro  worked  these  mines  between  1534  and  1545,  on  their 
own  account,  and  without  paying  the  Quinto;  because  when  Francisco 
Pizarro  was  slain,  at  Lima,  in  1541,  by  the  partisans  of  the  murdered 
Almagro,  they  found  a  surprising  amount  of  treasure  secreted  in  the 
house  of  the  conquistador. 

Next  in  celebrity  to  the  silver  mines  of  Potosi  were  those  of  the 
Cerro  de  Pasco,  though  these  are  of  a  much  later  a^ra.  They  were  first 
worked  in  1705.  In  1784  the  annual  product,  then  about  76,000  marcs 
(weight),  gradually  increased  to  400,000  marcs  (1841),  and  then  fell 
to  160,000  marcs  (1879).  From  181 1  to  1825,  and  since  1879,  the 
mines  produced  nothing.  Du  Chatenet,  who  wrote  in  1880,  says  that 
about  eight  or  nine  thousand  natives,  all  gamblers  and  drunkards,  used 
to  be  employed  in  the  vicinity  at  half  a  dollar  jier  diem,  and  that  the 
bars  of  bullion  which  were  worth  $200  at  the  casa  de  fundicion,  cost, 
on  the  average,  $270.  Von  Tschudi  (1838)  says  that  there  are  sev- 
eral thousand  shafts  at  Pasco,  all  in  a  ruinous  condition,  and  that 
many  caves  had  occurred  and  numerous  lives  lost,  in  one  case  300,  a 
tragedy  which  has  given  to  the  place  the  name  of  Matagente  or  Dead- 
man's  shaft.  The  people  are  all  gamblers,  and  are  so  poor  that  in  the 
province  of  Janja  they  use  eggs  for  money,  at  the  ra'te  of  two  cents 
each.  For  bonanza  the  local  term  is  boya,  but  there  are  no  longer 
any  boyas  at  Pasco. 

The  silver  mines  of  San  Jose  were  once  so  productive  that  on  the 
occasion  when  the  owner's  first  child  was  christened,  for  whom  the 
Vireyna  (viceroyess)  stood  sponsor,  the  father  laid  a  triple  row  of  sil- 
ver bricks  for  the  latter  to  walk  upon,  which  stretched  from  the  pal- 
ace to  the  church.  Then  he  presented  the  entire  pavement  to  the 
sponsor.  How  many  natives  were  sacrificed  to  secure  this  object  of 
ostentation  is  not  mentioned  (Von  Tschudi).  In  the  same  district 
are  the  quicksilver  mines  of  Huancavelica,  opened  about  the  year 
1570,  and  worked  for  two  centuries,  though  after  1684  they  declined. 


204 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


In  1790  the  richest  of  these  mines  caved  in,  killing  122  men,  since 
which  time  the  natives  have  refused  to  vi^ork  in  them.    (Jacob,  266.) 

In  the  year  following  the  murder  of  Francisco  Pizarro,  the  parti- 
sans of  the  younger  Almagro  discovered  the  rich  gold  placers  of 
Caravaya,  from  which  they  took  one  nugget  weighing  four  arrobas,. 
129}^  lbs.,  and  another  of  nearly  equal  weight,  besides  vast  quanti- 
ties of  pepitas  and  dust.  Eventually,  the  wild  Chuncha  Indians  of 
the  Sirineyri  tribe  fell  upon  the  gold  washers  and  drove  them  away. 
In  the  following  century  a  band  of  Spanish  mulattos  reoccupied  these 
diggings,  from  which  they  extracted  so  much  treasure  that  in  return 
for  his  ample  Fifths  the  King  of  Spain  granted  them  the  singular 
privilege  (their  own  asking)  of  being  called  Senores,  and  of  riding  on 
white  mules  with  bells  and  red  trappings.  In  1767  the  town  of  San 
Gavan,  with  4,000  families,  mostly  negros,  and  a  large  treasure,  was. 
surprised  and  entirely  destroyed  by  the  Carangas  and  Suchimanis. 
Chunchas.  (Lock.)  In  1849,  Caravaga  was  again  invaded  by  the  gold 
diggers;  but  the  news  from  California  soon  drew  them  away  to  more 
profitable  and  less  dangerous  regions.  The  natives  have  a  horror  of 
the  precious  metals,  and  will  not  touch  them.  Attempts  have  been 
made  by  the  whites  to  explore  the  ruins  of  San  Gavan,  beneath  which 
there  is  believed  to  remain  an  immense  sum  of  gold;  but  the  Indians 
will  not  permit  it.  Vein  mines  have  been  opened  in  this  district,  and 
these,  together  with  the  scrapings  of  the  placers,  constitute  nearly 
the  entire  auriferous  product  of  Peru,  which  is  now  about  a  quarter 
of  a  million  dollars  per  annum.  The  entire  gold  product,  including 
plunder,  robbery  of  graves  and  mining,  has  been  about  190  tons  of 
2.,ooo  pounds.  The  present  annual  silver  product  is  about  4}^  mil- 
lion ounces,  worth  in  gold  2y^  million  dollars.  A  compreliensive  esti- 
mate of  the  entire  product  of  the  precious  metals  in  Peru,  from  the 
Conquest  to  the  present  time,  is  given  elsewhere  in  the  present  work. 

Did  the  Peruvians  before  the  Conquest  ever  use  gold  or  silver 
money  ?  We  answer  this  question  by  asking  another  one.  Did  the 
Chinese  ever  use  gold  or  silver  money  ?  The  reply  to  this  question 
is,  Yes;  and  reasoning  by  analogy,  so  must  be  the  reply  to  the  other. 
The  Chinese  do  not  now  use  money  of  the  precious  metals;  only 
bronze  t'sien,  chuen,  sapeques,  or"  cash  ";  but  they  certainly  did,  on 
more  than  one  occasion,  use  gold  and  silver  money,  because  some  of 
the  pieces  are  still  extant,  and  specimens  of  them  may  be  seen  in 
several  of  the  great  numismatic  collections  of  Europe.  Mr.  Prescott 
says  that  the  Peruvians  "  knew  nothing  of  money,"  and  implies  that 
they  never  had  used  money.      From  certain  considerations  set  forth 


I'ERU, 


at  length  in  the  "History  of  Money  in  America,"  this  opinion  ap- 
pears to  be  unfounded.  In  addition  to  those  considerations,  which 
of  themselves  appear  to  be  sufficient,  some  further  evidences  have 
rewarded  the  writer's  researches,  which  seem  to  adtl  strength  to  liis 
previous  conclusions. 

''Near  Truxillo,  Humboldt  (in  1S02)  visited  the  ruins  of  the  an- 
cient city  of  Chimu,  and  descended  into  the  tunib  of  a  Peruvian 
prince  in  which  Garci  (nitierez  de  Toledo,  while  digging  a  gallery 
in  1576,  discovered  a  mass  of  gold  amounting  in  value  to  more  than 
a  million  of  dollars."  Bayard  Taylor's  Life  of  Humboldt,  p.  262.  Sar- 
miento  says  that  100,000  castellanos,  equal  in  weight  to  a  quarter 
of  a  million  gold  dollars,  were  sometimes  (this  implies  more  than  once) 
got  from  a  single  tomb.  "  The  burying  of  treasures  (meaning gold), 
was  an  old  and  very  generally  prevailing  Peruvian  custom.  Subter- 
ranean chambers  were  often  found  below  many  of  the  private  dwel- 
lings of  Ca.xamarca."    Taylor's  Humboldt,  256. 

The  object  in  burying  the  treasures  was  obviously  to  preserve  them ; 
but  why  preserve  these  peculiar  treasures  unless  confidence  was  felt 
in  the  ability  of  the  owners  to  exchange  them  at  j^leasure  for  such 
other  things  as  they  might  desire;  and  what  could  have  been  the 
basis  of  ttiis  confidence  other  than  the  employment  of  gold  as  a  com- 
mon medium  of  exchange,  either  at  the  time  of  the  hoarding  or  at 
some  previous  time,  the  value  of  the  gold  at  which  previous  time 
was  connected  with  its  value  at  the  then  present  time,  by  means  of 
the  intermediate  measure  of  value  established  by  the  government? 
Except  a  few  mementos  and  these  buried  treasures  of  gold,  no  other 
kind  of  personal  property  was  preserved  by  the  Peruvians.  All  else 
was  used,  consumed,  devoted  to  present  wants,  the  existing  require- 
ments of  the  owner.  Why  preserve  gold  unless  its  previous  use  and 
previous  value  as  money  inspired  confidence  in  its  future  value  ? 

In  the  "  History  of  Money  in  America  "  it  is  ]:>r()ved  from  Prcscott 
himself  that  the  Incas  monopolized  the  native  mines  of  copper,  silver 
and  gold;  and  in  the  History  of  the  Precious  Metals  in  Chile  it  is 
shown  that  the  Incas  exacted  the  tribute  of  that  country  in  gold. 
These  circumstances  point  to  gold  as  having  been  then,  or  else  pre- 
viously, a  common  measure  of  value  in  Peru;  and  a  measure  of  value 
is  only  another  term  for  money.  It  may  be  that  at  the  period  of  the 
Conquest  the  use  of  gold  for  money  had  been  temporarily  abandoned 
on  account  of  the  fitful  supplies  of  gold  from  the  placers  or  mines, 
and  the  distance  and  isolation  of  Peru  from  other  populous  countries; 
an  isolation  which  left  it  without  a  vent  for  its  surplus  treasures. 


206  .  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Such  a  previous  and  familiar  employment  of  gold  as  is  here  suggested 
could  alone  have  afforded  the  basis  of  that  confidence  in  its  future 
and  readily  recognized  value  which  induced  the  lords  of  Peru  to  bury 
immense  sums  of  that  metal  beneath  their  dwellings  or  in  their  tombs. 

Had  the  Peruvians  been  a  new  and  progressive  nation  we  should 
regard  the  metal  they  hoarded  as  nascent  money;  but  as  they  were 
an  ancient  and  moribund  nation,  we  regard  it  as  decadent  money;  ■ 
that  which  had  once  been  stamped  or  shaped  and  valued  by  the  State, 
but  was  now  demonetised;  just  as  we  know  is  at  present  the  case  with 
the  gold  slugs  and  silver  "shoos  "  of  China.  Cortes  reported  that 
tin  money,  chisel-shaped,  was  used  in  Mexico;  and  the  writer  has 
seen  specimens  of  this  money  in  the  Paris  collection.  The  natives 
called  the  pieces  xiquipili  or  siccapili,  and  a  full-sized  engraving  of 
one  of  them  appears  in  the  American  Journal  of  Numismatics,  Vol.  V, 
No.  2.  Taylor,  in  his  Life  of  Humboldt,  p.  276,  explicitly  informs 
us  that  before  the  Conquest,  the  Mexicans  "  usually  paid  their  tri- 
butes in  two  ways,  either  by  collecting,  in  leathern  sacks  or  small 
baskets  of  slender  rushes,  the  grains  of  native  gold,  or  by  founding 
the  metal  into  bars.  These  bars,  like  those  now  used  in  trade,  are 
represented  in  the  ancient  Mexican  paintings." 

If  the  natives  of  Mexico  could  guide  Pizarro  to  Peru,  the  natives 
of  Peru  could  scarcely  have  been  ignorant  of  Mexico  and  its  em- 
ployment of  money.  It  is  incredible  that  so  powerful  an  instrument- 
ality of  societary  life  was  employed  by  the  Mexicans  and  not  by  a  so 
similiarly  constituted  and  so  numerous  a  people  as  the  Peruvians. 
The  native  scale  of  value  employed  in  Mexico  was  20  cocoa  beans^ 
■I  olatl;  20  olatl=^i  zontle;  20  zontle=i  xiquipili  or  siccapili,  the  lat- 
ter being  either  a  tin  coin  as  above  described  or  else  a  gold  slug, 
weighing  about  one-fourth  of  an  ounce  Troy.  As  the  Peruvians  used 
capsicum  pods,  which  are  similar  to  cocao  beans,  for  small  sums  of 
money,  and  as  they  exacted  their  tributes  in  gold  and  hoarded  gold, 
it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  they  did  not  also  employ  gold  to  repre- 
sent large  sums  of  money,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Mexicans. 

In  1886,  Senor  Gaston,  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Mercantile  Statis- 
tics in  Lima,  made  the  following  report  on  the  social  condition  of  the 
capital  of  Peru  : — 

"There  are  100,000  population  in  Lima;  34  per  cent,  of  these  are 
minors,  47  per  cent,  single  and  widowed,  19  per  cent,  married.  This  is 
is  not  a  matter  of  surprise,  owing  to  the  economical  features  mentioned 
hereafter,  but  it  must  be  noted  with  pain  that  from  the  great  num- 
ber of  minors  it  clearly  appears  that  unmarried  persons  take  almost 


PHRU.  207 

as  active  a  part  in  propagating  their  species  as  those  in  wedlock. 
Statistics  show  that  46  per  cent,  of  the  births  in  18S4  were  tlie  fruits 
of  wedlock,  and  54  per  cent,  illegitimate.  It  is,  therefore,  more  than 
evident  that  over  two-thirds  of  the  population  of  Lima  live  in  a  state 
of  concubinage,  or  something  of  that  character,  rather  than  in  legal 
and  family  ties.  According  to  census  reports  there  is  an  excess  of  2,534 
unmarried  or  widowed  women  over  the  same  classes  of  males,  and  as 
women  are  less  adapted  or  educated  to  gain  their  living  by  industry 
than  the  male  portion,  the  only  means  of  subsistence  left  to  them  is 
that  of  depending  upon  the  stronger  sex,  without  regard  to  law  or 
morality.  In  a  society  of  only  6,000  families  this  excess  of  2,500 
single  women,  urged  by  necessity,  perverted  through  ignorance  and 
even  influenced  by  the  climate,  is  an  element  of  danger  to  public 
morals  and  general  good.  In  a  word,  of  the  100,000  people  in  Lima, 
but  little  more  than  one-third  live  in  family  ties. 

There  are  33,914  persons  under  age,  34,159  females  and  only  30,- 
083  active  producers,  so  that  every  able-bodied  man  has  to  support 
more  than  three  persons.  The  cost  of  food,  clothing,  etc.,  may  be 
reckoned  at  $15  per  head  per  month.  Each  man  able  to  work  should 
earn  $45  per  month.  This  amount  is  only  obtained  by  the  most  lim- 
ited number.  A  condition  of  the  most  abject  poverty  prevails,  which 
shortens  the  life  of  the  people.  The  consuming  class  is  constantly 
increasing,  and  every  man  forced  to  shoulder  the  musket  is  but  a  new 
burden  laid  on  the  feeble  shoulders  of  the  producers.  It  is  therefore 
shown  that  the  population  of  Lima  does  not  rest,  as  it  should,  on  a 
family  basis,  and  that  from  a  lack  of  labour-power  and  excess  of  un- 
married females  there  is  wanting  that  great  producing  element  which 
is  a  principal  factor  in  well-established  communities.  The  result  of 
all  this  is  a  never-ending  struggle  between  an  educated  minority  and 
the  powerful  resistance  of  ignorant  masses,  who,  almost  irresponsible 
for  their  acts,  entertain  a  deep-seated  hatred  for  those  they  hold  to 
be  their  oppressors.  They  are  a  suspicious,  selfish  mass,  refusing  all 
efforts  towards  their  own  self-regeneration,  without  habits  of  order, 
unable  to  resjiect  laws  of  which  they  are  ignorant,  living  in  intellec- 
tual darkness,  and  generally  in  moral  depravity;  their  e.xistence  passes 
by  without  a  thought  being  given  to  their  advancement,  their  per- 
servation  as  a  race,  or  to  their  hereafter. 

When  it  comes  to  pursuits,  64,956  are  without  any.  Even  among 
those  married  not  one- fifth  of  the  offspring:;  survive  the  first  year  s  exist- 
ence^ antl  the  reason  assigned  is  that  the  parents  cannot  provide  them 
with  the  proper  nourishment. 


208  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Even  more  lamentable  is  the  fate  of  those  numerous  unmarried 
women  whose  children  never  know  their  fathers.  For  them  there  is 
no  employment,  no  protection,  no  support.  When  their  children  live, 
they  grow  up  weaklings,  owing  to  the  privations  they  undergo,  and 
they  generally  end  their  days  in  a  hospital.  Premiums  are  given  for 
useless  and  unsubstantial  objects,  whilst  talent  and  honourable  la- 
bour go  unrewarded.  Immense  sums  are  subscribed  to  build  simip- 
tuoiis  temples  side  by  side  with  the  hovels  where  the  poor  die  in  want 
and  misery.  Hundreds  of  people  exist  in  damp,  narrow  and  unhealthy 
dwellings,  whilst  in  the  main  street  of  the  city  are  extensive  convents 
and  monasteries^  covering  acres  of  ground  and  affording  shelter  to  a 
handful  of  useless  and  idle  monks  and  nuns.  On  this  account  there 
are  more  churches  and  convents  than  municipal  schools,  more  chil- 
dren and  women  than  men,  more  soldiers  and  Chinese  than  active 
citizens,  more  beggars  than  labourers,  more  priests  than  men  of 
science,  more  illegitimate  than  legitimate  children,  more  concubines 
than  women  legally  married,  more  ignorance  than  enlightenment, 
more  corruption  than  morality,  more  gunpowder  than  bread." 

From  this  terrible  picture  of  Lima,  it  follows  that  the  city  must 
be  largely  supported  by  the  country,  and  that  the  resources  of  the 
latter  must  be  heavily  taxed  for  its  support.  As  these  resources  are 
comparatively  slender,  the  condition  of  the  Peruvian  republic  must  be 
so  deplorable  that  little  hope  can  be  entertained  of  a  general  amelior- 
ation of  its  affairs  without  the  adoption  of  reforms  which  at  the  pre- 
sent time  appear  hopeless.  These  should  obviously  begin  with  the 
assumption  of  civil  over  ecclesiastical  rule,  the  taxation  of  eccles- 
iastical property,  and  the  absolute  abandonment  and  interdiction 
of  mining  for  the  precious  metals.  It  is  much  to  be  feared  that  be- 
fore such  drastic  remedies  can  be  grasped,  Peru  will  have  to  pass 
through  more  than  one  more  revolution. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


CHILK. 


Almagfro  captures  the  Inca's  tribute  and  invades  Chile — Defeated  by  the  Puruman- 
ians — X'aidivia's  expedition — Defeated  by  the  Arucanians — Ilis  second  expeiiition 
proves  more  successful — Opening  of  Marga  Marga — Details  of  the  mining — \aldivia 
pushes  farther  south — Building  of  the  Seven  Cities — He  is  attacked,  defeated  and  put 
to  death  by  the  Arucanians — Whose  independence  is  respected  by  the  Spaniards — Pro- 
duce of  the  gold  washings  since  154S — Mode  of  working  the  mines — Attempts  of  the 
Dutch  and  English  to  wrest  Chile  from  the  Spaniards — Revolution  of  1817 — Inde- 
pendence of  Chile — Cieneral  results  of  mining  in  Chile — Current  product  of  gold  and 
silver — Erroneous  statistics  published  by  the  American  government. 

CHILI',  is  one  of  the  few  countries  in  America  where  the  Span- 
iards met  with  a  foe  who  did  not  fear  them,  and  wlio,  after 
having  more  than  once  put  them  to  flight,  finally  succeeded  in  secur- 
ing respect  for  their  own  independence  by  treaty.  These  were  the 
Arucanians.  Chile  consists  of  a  narrow  strip  of  land,  less  than  100 
miles  wide,  but  nearly  2,000  miles  long,  lying  between  the  Andes  and 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  extending  from  latitude  23  to  56  degrees 
south.  Much  of  this  is  auriferous;  some  of  it  is  argentiferous.  Nearly 
all  of  it  is  cultivable.  In  short,  it  is  the  California  of  the  Southern 
hemisphere,  and  naught  but  bad  government  has  made  it  poor. 

In  1450,  the  Inca  of  Peru  extended  his  dominion  southward  through 
Chile,  to  the  river  Rapel,  where  the  resistance  of  the  natives  com- 
pelled him  to  halt.  Here  he  built  a  fort  and  imposed  a  tribute  upon 
the  natives  within  his  lines,  amounting  to  about  1,400  pounds  weight 
of  gold  annually.  This  tribute  was  cast  into  small  bars,  marked  with 
the  Inca's  stamp  and  escorted  each  year  to  Peru  by  400  bowmen.  At 
the  principal  towns  along  the  road  it  was  welcomed  by  the  Peruvians 
with  rejoicings  and  festivities,  not  because  there  was  any  expecta- 
tion that  it  was  going  to  be  of  benefit  to  them,  but  because  it  was 
destined  for  the  decoration  of  the  great  Temple  at  Cu/.co,  where  the 
Deity  was  incarnated  and  worshipped  in  the  person  of  the  Inca. 
Meanwhile,  the  Purumanian  Indians,  who  paid  this  tribute,  were  ob- 
iiged  to  gather  it   painfully,  with   many   tears  and   sighs,  from  ths 


2IO  HISTORY    OF    THE    FliECIOUS    METALS. 

"  manta  "  of  gravel  which  surmounted  their  coasts  and  streams,  won- 
dering, no  doubt,  why  so  much  cruelty  should  be  exercised  for  the 
sake  of  an  acquisition  for  which  the  Peruvians  themselves  had  no  im- 
mediate nor  economical  employment  The  Purumanians  (whose  name 
suggests  that  they  were  the  aborigines  of  Peru),  frequently  revolted 
and  were  as  often  suppressed;  though  not  without  great  losses  to  the 
armies  of  the  Incas. 

When  the  Spaniards  conquered  Peru  they  intercepted  one  of  the 
Inca  convoys  of  gold  from  Chile.  Nothing  more  was  needed  to  doom 
the  unfortunate  country  to  destruction.  It  was  resolved  to  ravage 
Chile  from  end  to  end.  The  leader  of  the  expedition  was  Diego  de 
Almagro,  who,  with  570  European  troops,  set  forth  from  Cuzco  in 
1535.  The  Spaniards  met  with  no  opposition  till  after  passing  Cop- 
iapo,  when,  like  their  predecessors  the  Peruvians,  they  were  defeated 
by  the  brave  Purumanians  and  compelled  to  retreat  to  Peru.  Five 
years  later  an  expedition,  under  Pedro  de  Valdivia,  met  with  better 
success,  and  advanced  as  far  south  as  the  present  town  of  Santiago, 
where  it  was  stopped  by  the  Purumanians.  After  obtaining  re-enforce- 
ments from  Peru,  Valdivia  advanced  to  the  river  IMaule.  lat.  35  S., 
where  he  encountered  the  Arucanians,  a  foe  still  braver  and  more  de- 
termined, or  better  equipped,  than  the  Purumanians.  Here  he  was 
defeated  and  compelled  to  retreat  to  Peru.  In  1548  Valdivia  headed 
another  expedition  to  Chile.  This  time  he  advanced  beyond  the 
Maule,  to  the  place  afterwards  known  as  Penco  or  Concepcion,  where 
he  erected  a  fort.  Here  he  was  repeatedly  assailed  by  the  natives, 
but  until  1553  he  managed  to  hold  his  ground  and  ransack  the  sur- 
rounding country  for  gold. 

The  principal  field  of  operations  was  Marga  Marga,  a  "manta" 
of  auriferous  gravel  situated  in  a  valley  between  Valparaiso  and  San- 
tiago; the  means  employed  was  the  enslavement  of  the  natives,  who, 
by  the  ecclesiastical  artifice  of  commendario,  were  both  religiously 
and  lawfully  bound  to  expend  their  lives  in  washing  gold  for  their  suz- 
erain the  King  of  Spain,  and  his  suzerain  the  Caesar  of  Germany,  or 
the  Pope  of  Rome,  whichever  happened  to  be  uppermost  at  the  time. 

Here  it  is  to  be  observed  that  that  oldest  of  all  ruses  de  guerre,  the 
Divine  Origin  of  the  invaders,  was  again  successfully  employed. 
"When  Almagro  crossed  the  Cordilleras,  the  natives,  regarding  the 
Spaniards  as  allied  to  the  Divinity,  collected  for  them  gold  and  sil- 
ver amounting  to  290,000  ducats,"  (Haydn,)  equal  in  contents  to  as 
many  half-sovereigns  of  the  present  day.  So  far  as  Chile  is  con- 
cerned, belief  in  the  incarnation  of  the  Creator  appears  to  have  been 


CHILE.  211 

limited  to  the  Purumanians;  the  Arucanians  repudiating  the  mythos 
altogether.  Whether  the  Purumanians  learnt  this  doctrine  from  the 
Peruvians,  or  communicated  it  to  them,  is  not  known.  It  is  most 
likely  to  have  come  from  Peru,  where  it  was  supported  by  scriptures, 
calendars  and  other  ecclesiastical  evidences,  of  which  the  Puruman- 
ians possessed  only  a  derived  or  secondary  knowledge.  The  fact  that 
it  was  only  entertained  by  such  of  the  Purumanians  as  dwelt  north  of 
Copiapo  lends  additional  support  to  the  conjecture.  In  this  connec- 
tion it  is  rather  curious  that  the  Arucanians,  "  whose  religion  was  a 
kind  of  Manichaeism  "  (Helps),  venerated  a  Genius  of  War,  who  bore 
the  Egyptian  name  of  Epon-Ammon.  Their  caciques  were  also  called 
Ul-Menes,  another  Egyptian  name.  They  valued  reputation,  toler- 
ated philosophers,  despised  superstitions,  and  had  neither  temples, 
idols,  nor  priests.      (Helps,  ii,  152-3.) 

V  estos  que  guardan  ordeii  algo  estrecha 
No  tienen  ley,  ni  Dios,  ni  que  hay  pecados; 
Mas  solo  aquel  virir  les  aprovecha 
De  ser  por  sabios  honibres  reputados. 

— La  Arncana  de  Alonso  pe  Erciixa  V  Zrxir.A. 

The  operations  of  the  Spaniards  at  Marga  Marga  began  imme- 
diately after  Almagro's  Concjuest  of  Chile.  The  captive  Indians, 
after  having  been  disarmed,  were  distributed  among  the  conquerors 
in  encomienda  and  driven  like  sheep  into  the  gravel  mines.  At  first 
the  average  number  of  encomiendieros  to  each  Spaniard  was  about 
30;  the  leader  getting  600  and  the  rest  according  to  their  military 
rank.  As  will  be  seen  below,  these  numbers  were  afterwards  greatly 
increased.  Within  a  year  after  Valdivia  began  his  fell  work  at  Marga 
Marga  the  free  Indians  descended  from  the  mountains  upon  the 
province  of  Coquimbo,  which  lay  between  Santiago  and  Peru,  j)ut 
the  Spaniards  stationed  there  to  death  and  cut  off  Valdivia's  land 
communication.  In  their  alarm  at  this  event  the  Spaniards  at  Santiago 
begged  Valdivia  to  abandon  the  country  and  return  to  Peru,  whilst 
yet  the  sea  route,  by  way  of  Valparaiso,  was  open  to  them.  His  reply 
was  that  should  he  do  so,  the  King  of  Spain  wouUl  lose  his  Fifths;  and 
that  that  alone  was  sufficient  reason  for  him  to  remain.  Sending  to 
Peru  for  re-enforcements,  Valdivia  drove  the  natives  out  of  Coquimbo, 
and  as  Marga  Marga  was  not  enough  to  fill  the  maws  of  the  new- 
comers, Valdivia  pushed  his  conquests  farther  south,  subduing  and 
enslaving  the  Indians  wherever  he  went, and  erecting  forts  as  a  means 
of  keeping  them  in  subjection.  These  forts,  from  their  number,  were 
called  Septem  Civitates,orthe  "Seven  Cities,"  namely, .\ngol,Caneta, 


212  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Imperial,  Aranco,  Villarica,  Valdivia,  and  Osorno;  the  last-named,  in 
the  year  1551  and  in  lat.  41  south.  The  principal  gold  field  worked 
within  these  newly-acquired  domains  were  Quilacoya,  where  10,- 
000  to  15,000  naked  Indians  were  kept  at  forced  labour;  the  total 
annual  output  was  about  $300,000;  the  King's  Fifth  was  about  $60,- 
000.  The  daily  produce  of  each  slave  was  equivalent  to  about  six 
cents,  say  3d.  sterling;  the  cost  of  supporting  him,  or  rather  of  kill- 
ing him,  on  a  scant  supply  of  maize  and  beans,  was  about  half  as 
much  as  his  produce.  In  short,  the  net  yield  of  a  slave,  so  long  as 
he  could  be  kept  at  work,  was  about  3  cents,  or  i}4d.  per  day.  It  was 
for  this  precarious  reward  that  the  Spaniards  deserted  their  own 
country,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  on  earth ;  it  was  for  this  that  they 
abandoned  its  mines,  which  were  far  richer — indeed,  they  are  yet — 
than  those  of  Chile;  it  was  for  this  that  they  traversed  the  ocean, 
to  attack,  enslave  and  doom  to  destruction  an  innocent  and  harm- 
less race  of  Indians;  and  it  was  for  this  that  they  committed  enor- 
mities which  rendered  the  name  of  Spaniard  odious  to  the  rest  of  the 
world.  We  forbear  to  moralize  upon  the  King,  whose  quinto,  or  the 
Pope,  whose  annats,  were  derived  from  such  a  source.  Father  Las 
Casas,  the  historians  of  Spain,  Father  Raynal,  and  the  good  Dom- 
inican friars,  have  said  all  that  is  necessary  on  this  subject;  and  we 
can  add  nothing  to  the  bitterness  and  force  of  their  condemnations. 

In  1553,  the  Spanish  empire  in  southern  Chile  was  suddenly  extin- 
guished. Valdivia's  forces  were  defeated  by  the  brave  Arucanians, 
the  Spanish  leader  was  captured  and  put  to  death  by  pouring  molten 
gold  down  his  throat,  the  entire  colony  of  gold-hunters  was  driven 
out  of  the  country;  and  carrying  their  victorious  arms  to  the  north, 
the  Indians  assaulted  and  captured  Concepcion,  which,  though  after- 
wards won  by  the  Spaniards,  formed,  for  a  century,  the  boundary  line 
(the  river  Bio-Bio)  between  the  gold-seekers  and  their  quarry.  At 
length,  in  1665,  the  former  were  fain  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  Aru- 
canians,acknowledging  their  independence  and  establishing  the  limits 
of  their  territory  at  the  Bay  of  Concepcion.  This  peace  lasted  until 
1723,  when  it  was  broken  by  the  Spaniards,  who  drove  the  Arucan- 
ians into  the  mountains,  where  they  resided  until  the  Revolution, 
maintaining  their  independence  and  allowing  no  white  man  to  enter 
their  territory,  and  no  one  to  "  prospect  "  for  gold. 

The  history  of  the  precious  metals  in  Chile  is  in  its  general  aspects 
the  counterpart  of  its  history  in  Peru.  First,  the  plunder  of  the  na- 
tives, and  the  robbing  of  their  temples  and  graves;  second,  the  gold 
placers;  third,  the  quartz  mines.    In  Chile,  it  used  to  be  a  saying  that 


CHILE  213 

he  who  worked  a  copper  mine  might  gain;  he  wlio  worked  a  silver 
mine  might  gain  or  lose;  but  he  who  worked  a  gold  mine  was  sure  to 
he  ruined.  The  gold  is  embedded  in  gravel  beaches  lying  high  above 
the  level  of  the  petty  streams  that  drain  the  Sierras.  These  beaches 
were  toilsome  to  get  at  and  e.xpensive  to  work.  The  silver  mines  are 
in  the  Sierras,  which  are  difficult  of  access  and  intensely  cold.  Yet, 
by  reducing  the  defenceless  inhabitants  to  slavery,  which  was  sub- 
stantially the  case  down  to  the  Revolution  of  181 7,  the  Spaniards 
managed  to  extract  from  these  forbidding  sources,  during  the  period 
from  the  Conquest  to  the  Revolution,  about  ^25,000.000  in  gold 
alone;  chiefly  from  plunder  and  the  Marga  Marga  and  Aconcagua 
gold  washings.  El  Bronce  de  Petorca,  Illapel  and  Andacollo,  and 
those  of  La  Ligua  on  the  coast  north  of  Quillota  and  Catemo,  12 
leagues  up  the  river  Aconcagua. 

Mr  Darwin,  who  visited  the  gold  {|uartz  mines  of  Yaquil  (Jajuel) 
about  the  year  1846,  thus  describes  the  manner  of  working  them: 
The  labourers  or  miners  are  paid  about  ^i  a  month,  togctlier  with 
food.  This  consists  of  16  figs  and  two  small  rolls  of  bread  for  break- 
fast, boiled  beans  for  dinner,  and  broken  roasted  wheat  grains  for 
supper.  They  scarcely  ever  taste  meat.  Out  of  their  ^^i  a  month 
they  have  to  clothe  themselves  and  support  their  families.  The 
"apires"  are  those  who  bring  up  the  ore  to  the  surface.  Their 
pay  is  from  24  to  28  shillings  a  month.  They  live  entirely  on  boiled 
beans  and  bread;  they  would  prefer  the  bread  alone,  but  the  masters, 
finding  that  they  cannot  work  so  hard  on  this,  insist  ujjon  their  eat- 
ing the  beans.  The  mines  are  450  feet  deep,  and  each  a|)ire  brings 
up  nearly  200  i^ounds  weight  of  ore  each  time  he  ascends.  Willi  this 
load  he  has  to  climb  up  the  alternate  notches  cut  in  the  trunks  of 
trees  placed  in  a  zig-zag  line  up  the  shaft.  The  men,  who  wear  only 
a  pair  of  drawers,  ascend  with  this  heavy  load  from  the  bottom  of  the 
shaft  to  the  top.  Even  young  men,  eighteen  or  twenty  years  of  age, 
whose  muscular  development  is  far  from  completeil,  perform  tiiis 
amazing  task.  They  leave  the  mine  only  once  in  three  weeks,  when 
they  stay  with  their  families  for  two  days.  Asa  means  of  prevent- 
ing the  men  from  abstracting  any  of  the  gold,  the  owners  establish 
a  very  summary  and  stringent  tribunal.  Whenever  the  superinten- 
dent finds  a  lump  of  ore  secreted  for  theft,  its  full  value  is  stopjied 
out  of  the  wages  of  all  the  men,  so  that  they  watch  over  each  other, 
each  having  a  direct  interest  in  the  honesty  of  all  the  rest. 

The  amount  of  labour  they  undergo  is  greater  than  that  of  slaves; 
being  to  a  certain  e.xtent  masters  of  their  own  actions,  they  bear  up 
against  what  would  wear  down  most  men.  Living  for  weeks  together 
in  the  most  desolate  spots,  when  ihcy  descend  to  the  villages  on  holi- 
days there  is  no  excess  of  extravagance  into  which  they  do  not  run. 
The  miners  dig  the  ore  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  while  the  apires 
are  simply  labourers,  much  like  bricklayers'  labourers,  but  the  latter 


214  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

carry  less  heavy  loads,  and  up  a  much  less  height.  According  to  the 
general  regulation,  the  apire  is  not  allowed  to  halt  for  breath,  until 
the  mine  is  over  six  hundred  feet  deep.  The  average  load  is  con- 
sidered as  rather  more  than  200  pounds,  and  Mr.  Darwin  was  assured 
that  one  of  300  pounds  (twenty-two  stones  and  a-half),  by  way  of  a 
trial,  has  been  brought  up  from  the  deepest  mine!  At  that  time,  the 
apires  were  bringing  up  the  usual  load  twelve  times  in  the  day,  that 
is,  2,400  pounds  from  eighty  yards  deep;  and  they  were  employed  in 
the  intervals  in  breaking  and  picking  ore.  They  rarely  eat  meat,  once 
a  week,  and  never  oftener,  and  then  only  the  hard,  dry  charqui  (dried 
beef).  Although  with  a  knowledge  that  the  labour  is  voluntary,  it  was, 
nevertheless,  quite  revolting  to  see  the  state  in  which  they  reached 
the  mouth  of  the  mine;  their  bodies  bent  forward,  leaning  with  their 
arms  on  the  steps,  their  legs  bowed,  their  muscles  quivering,  the  per- 
spiration streaming  from  their  faces  over  their  breasts,  their  nostrils 
distended,  the  corners  of  their  mouths  forcibly  drawn  back,  and  the 
expulsion  of  their  breath  the  most  laborious;  each  time,  from  habit, 
they  utter  an  articulate  cry  of  "ay-ay,"  which  ends  in  a  sound  rising 
from  deep  in  the  chest,  but  shrill,  like  the  note  of  a  fife.  After  stag- 
gering to  the  pile  of  ores,  they  emptied  the  carpacho ;  in  two  or  three 
seconds  recovering  their  breath,  they  wiped  the  sweat  from  their 
brows,  and,  apparently  quite  fresh,  descended  the  mine  again  at  a 
quick  pace. 

In  1642,  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  observing  that  the  na- 
tives of  Chile  were  inveterately  incensed  against  their  conquerors 
the  Spaniards,  flattered  themselves  that  they  would  make  an  easy  con- 
quest of  that  country.  For  this  end,  they  fitted  out  a  squadron  of 
ships,  under  Admiral  Brouwer,  hoping  to  possess  themselves  of  the 
Chilean  gold  mines.  At  first  they  defeated  the  Spaniards,  and  gained 
over  some  of  the  caciques,  with  whom  they  entered  into  an  alliance, 
after  furnishing  them  with  arms.  The  Dutch  even  erected  a  fort  at 
or  near  Valdivia,  but  found  the  Indians  less  tractable  than  they  had 
imagined.  In  the  end,  the  Dutch  were  obliged  to  retire  from  Chile 
without  having  achieved  the  object  of  all  this  preparation.  (Ander- 
son, Hist.  Com.,  11,398.) 

About  the  year  1655,  on  apostate  Roman  priest,  named  Gage,  re- 
turned to  England  from  the  Spanish  West  Indies,  where  he  had  re- 
sided many  years,  and  communicated  to  Oliver  Cromwell  so  particu- 
lar an  account  of  the  feeble  condition  of  the  Spanish  garrisons  in 
America  as  induced  the  Protector  to  attempt  their  reduction.  In  his 
relation,  Father  Gage  was  amply  supported  by  one  Simon  de  Cafferes, 
a  renegade  Spaniard.  Accordingly,  Cromwell,  in  1655,  sent  Vice- 
Admiral  Penn  with  thirty  ships  of  war,  and  four  thousand  soldiers, 
under  Generals  Venables  and  Holmes.  Their  first  point  of  attack 
was  near  St.  Domingo,  in  Hispaniola;  but  here  they  met  with  so  warm 


CHILE.  215 

a  reception,  losing  600  men  at  the  outset,  thnt  the  attempt  was  aban- 
doned. The  e.xpedition  next  sailed  to  Januuca,  where  it  was  more 
successful.  The  project  submitted  by  Simon  de  Cafleres  was  couched 
in  the  following  language,  which,  it  will  be  observed,  contemplated 
the  conquest  of  Chile: 

With  four  men-of-war  only,  and  four  other  ships  with  provisions 
and  ammunition,  and  one  thousand  soldiers,  to  round  Cape  Horn,  sail 
into  the  South  Sea  (Pacific  Ocean),  and  passing  Valdivia,  from  which 
port  the  Spaniards  have  already  been  driven  by  the  natives,  seize 
upon  the  kingdom  of  Chile;  our  people  to  rendezvous  at  the  Isle  of 
Mocha  (half-way  between  Valdivia  and  Aranco),  where  they  might 
victual  and  water,  as  there  are  none  but  Indians  there.  As  Chile 
abounds  with  more  gold  than  any  other  part  of  .Vmerica,  as  well  as 
with  provisions  and  a  wholesome  climate:  as,  moreover,  the  Chileans 
are  the  most  warlike  of  any  American  people,  and  being  mortal  foes 
to  the  Spaniards  by  reason  of  their  former  cruelties,  therefore  they 
would  probably  gladly  side  with  any  people  inclinable  to  drive  the 
Spaniards  quite  out  of  their  country.  If  this  project  should  succeed 
it  would  distress  Spain  in  the  most  sensible  and  and  least  guarded 
part.  The  ships  of  war  above  mentioned  would  serve  to  seize  upon 
the  Spanish  treasures  going  annually  from  Chile  to  Spain  by  the 
coast  of  Africa,  as  well  as  those  which  go  by  Lima  and  Guayaquil  to 
Panama,  and  the  two-year  rich  Acapulco  ships  to  the  Philippines. 
(Anderson,  11,  432.) 

To  support  this  project,  Cafferes  offered  to  enlist,  in  Holland,  some 
of  the  men  who  had  been  with  Brouwer's  e.xpedition  against  Valdivia, 
and  whose  knowledge  of  the  ground  might  prove  useful.  But  after 
considering  the  difficulties  of  the  enterprise,  distance,  storms,  ab- 
sence of  friendly  ports,  dubious  attitude  of  the  natives,  dangers  of 
the  climate,  etc.,  Cromwell  decided  that  the  expedition  should  con- 
fine its  operations  to  the  Atlantic  coasts  of  America  and  not  venture 
to  Chile.  Ten  years  later,  the  brave  .Arucanians  drove  the  Spaniards 
north  of  the  river  Bio-Bio,  and  e.xtorted  from  them  the  treaty  above 
mentioned,  thus  removing  all  encouragement  to  Dutch  or  English 
marauding  expeditions.  * 

Nevertheless,  in  1669,  Charles  11.  of  luigland  being  advised  to  "at- 
tempt a  settlement  in  a  country  so  greatly  abounding  in  gold  "  as 
Chile,  sent  out  .Admiral  Sir  John  Xarborough  with  a  thirty-six  gun 
ship  and  a  pink  (tender),  with  orders  to  ingratiate  himself  with  the 
natives  and  open  a  trade  with  them;  but  on  no  account  to  molest  the 
Spanish  settlement  which  still  lingered  at  Valdivia;  England  being 
now  (temporarily)  at  peace  with  Spain.  Sir  John's  attempt  at  "trade" 
with  the  natives  was.  however,  so  vigorously  resented  by  the  Span- 
iards at  Valdivia,  who  seized  upon  his  lieutenant  and  three  of  his  sail- 


2l6  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS 

ors,  that  he  "judged  it  prudent  to  return  home."  (Anderson,  ii,  501.) 
The  first  plunder  of  Chile  and  the  graves  yielded  about  $18,000,000. 
From  1545  to  1560  the  gold  production  of  Chile  averaged  about  $1,- 
000,000  per  annum ;  from  1561  to  1740  it  averaged  about  $250,000 
per  annum;  during  the  20  years,  1741-60J  it  averaged  $350,000  per 
annum;  1761-80,  $500,000  per  annum;  1781-1800,  $600,000  per  an- 
num; 1801-17,  $1,000,000  per  annum.  From  this  period,  that  of  the 
Revolution,  the  production  greatly  declined.  During  the  period 
1818-20  the  average  annual  production  was  only  about  $140,000; 
then  it  rose  in  1821-40  to  $800,000,  and  fell  in  1841-50  to  $700,000; 
and  in  1851-95  to  $250,000.  During  the  five  years  ending  with  and 
including  the  year  1900  the  annual  average  production  of  gold  grad- 
ually increased.  This  was  probably  due  in  Chile,  as  in  the  United 
States,  Mexico  and  other  countries,  to  the  demonetisation  and  rela- 
tive fall  of  silver  and  the  transferance  of  the  labours  of  prospectors 
and  miners  from  silver  to  gold  deposites.  The  subsequent  produc- 
tion of  gold  is  estimated  as  follows:  1896,  $500,000;  1897,  $600,000; 
1898,  $700,000;  1899,  $800,000;  1900,  $900,000;  total  for  the  quin- 
quennial period,  $3,500,000. 

The  production  of  silver  in  Chile,  which,  during  the  latter  part  of 
the  i8th  century,  is  indicated  by  an  annual  coinage  of  about  $150,- 
000,  fell  during  the  Revolution  to  almost  nothing,  and  only  assumed 
noticeable  proportions  after  the  decline  of  the  Californian  and  Aus- 
tralian placers,  and  the  return  of  the  Chilean  miners  to  their  native 
country'.  During  the  last  decade  of  the  19th  century  the  average  an- 
nual exports  of  silver  from  Chile  amounted  to  about  five  million 
Chilean  silver  dollars,  each  of  257.7144  Troy  grains  fine;  hence  to 
about  2,684,567  ounces.  These  exports  frequently  include  a  consider- 
able proportion  of  silver  produced  in  Bolivia — for  example,  from  the 
mines  of  Huancha,  whose  product  has  usually  been  exported  from 
Autofagasta  in  Chile.  As  owing  to  the  adoption  of  a  paper  currency, 
the  coinage  of  the  precious  metals  in  Chile  has  fallen  almost  to  no- 
thing, these  exports  exceed  the  production.  The  Director  of  the 
United  States  Mints,  more  than  doubles  these  figures.  But  as  re- 
peated instances  prove,  objections  to  the  methods  of  this  official  are 
of  no  avail.  Neither  he  nor  the  superior  officers  who  employ  his 
statistics  in  their  recommendations  to  Congress,  nor  the  Congress 
which  accepts  them  as  the  basis  of  its  legislation,  have  ever  given 
them  the  least  scrutiny.  His  tumid  figures  agree  with  the  theories  of 
the  ignorant  majority,  and  that  appears  to  be  sufficient.  Vulgus  vult 
decipi — decipiatur. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

LA     PLATA,     OR    BUENOS    AYRES. 

Slave-huntinjj  and  pillage — Encomiendas — Surrender  of  the  coinage  prerogative — 
Mining — Taxes — Sale  of  indulgences — The  Mita — Disappearance  of  the  natives — 
African  slave  trade — The  Paraguay  missions — The  Paulistas  attack  the  missions,  and 
capture  the  christian  converts — Effect  of  fire-arms — Cost  of  Gold — Destruction  of  the 
missions  and  enslavement  of  the  converts — Unprofitableness  cjf  the  mines — Their 
produce — Spanish  moneys — Mining  and  monetary  laws — Quinto,  seigniorage  and 
covos — Mints — Ratios — Counterfeit  coins — Individual  or  "free"  coinage — Poverty 
of  the  Spanish  Crown — Excessive  over-valuation  of  billon  and  copper  coins — Increase 
of  counterfeits — Expulsion  of  the  Moors  from  Spain — Panic  of  1714 — Revolution  of 
1732 — Mutations  of  moneys — Revolution  of  iSio — Value  of  gold  not  due  to  cost  of 
production. 

THE  Rio  de  la  Plata  was  discovered  in  15 16  by  Juan  de  Solis,  a 
Spanish  commander;  in  15:13  Alexis  (iarcia,  a  Portuguese  com- 
mander, traversed  Brazil  and  the  CiranChaco,  scaled  the  Andes,  and 
pillajjed  Alio  Peru  three  years  in  advance  of  Pizarro;  in  1527  Sebas- 
tian Cabot  founded  San  Espiiitu,gave  the  name  of  La  Plata  to  the  river 
and  country,  and  petitioned  the  King  of  Spain  to  aid  him  in  opening 
a  route  to  Peru  via  the  Vermejo;  in  1535  Mendoza  founded  Huenos 
Ayres,  his  lieutenant,  Del  Campo,  giving  it  that  name;  in  1537  Juan 
d'Ayolas  ascended  the  Paraguay,  and  struck  across  the  continent  to 
Alto  Peru,  which  he  pillaged;  in  1542  Cabe(;a  de  Vaca,  lantling  in 
Brazil,  sent  his  lieutenant  Vrala  to  pillage  Peru,  but  he  failed  to  reach 
it.  He  returned  with  12,000  Indian  slaves  and  a  few  sheep.  Upon 
being  appointed  Governor  of  La  Plata,  with  headcpiarters  at  the  Fort 
of  Asuncion,  Yrala,  in  turn,  sent  N.itlo  de  Chaves  to  pillage  Peru, 
but  was  there  confronted  by  a  pillaging  party  from  Peru  itself  under 
Hurtado  de  Mendoza.  In  1560  these  united  expeditions  founded 
Santa  Cruz  de  la  Sierra. 

Meanwhile,  in  1535,  the  mines  of  Pntosi  had  been  opened  by  the 
Spaniards  of  Peru.  A  line  of  forts  and  settlements  was  soon  after- 
wards established  between  these  mines  and  the  estuary  of  La  Plata. 
It  was  now  perceived  that  the  natives  were  too  poor  to  afford  fur- 


2l8  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

ther  encouragement  to  pillaging  expeditions,  and  the  efforts  of  the 
Spanish  adventurers  were  turned  to  mining  for  gold  and  silver.  To 
fill  the  coffers  of  the  King  of  Spain,  experience  had  proved  that  it 
was  necessary  to  capture  and  enslave  the  natives;  and  as  a  pretext 
for  this  procedure,  there  was  read,  nominally  to  them,  but  really  to 
the  trees  {a  los  arboies),  a  proclamation  {^Requerimientd)  from  the 
king,  which  ended  with  these  words:  "  But  if  you  will  not  comply  or 
maliciously  hesitate  to  obey  these  injunctions,  I  will  enter  your  coun- 
try by  force ;  I  will  carry  on  war  against  you  with  the  utmost  viol- 
ence; I  will  enslave  and  subject  you  to  the  yoke  of  obedience;  I  will 
take  your  wives  and  children,  make  them  slaves,  and  dispose  of  them 
at  pleasure;  I  will  plunder  you  and  do  you  all  the  mischief  in  my 
power,  treating  you  as  rebellious  subjects,  unwilling  to  submit  to  law- 
ful authority ;  and  I  protest  that  all  the  bloodshed  and  calamities 
which  shall  follow  are  to  be  imputed  to  you,  and  not  to  His  Majesty 
nor  to  me,  nor  to  the  gentle  and  honourable  cavaliers  who  serve  the 
king  under  me."  This  Requisition  was  the  original  basis  of  Argen- 
tine civilization,  the  Magna  Charta  of  South  American  rights — mine- 
slavery  for  the  endowment  of  a  foreign  church  and  king;  torture, 
pollution,  and  death  for  the  natives.  Whether  the  Indians  obeyed 
or  disobeyed  it,  the  result  of  the  Requisition  was  the  same;  to  them 
it  only  meant  extinction,  and  but  for  the  Revolution  of  1817  would 
have  left  South  America  a  solitude. 

Clad  in  mailed  shirts,  armed  with  sword  and  pistol,  and  mounted 
upon  fleet  horses,  the  "gentle  and  honourable  cavaliers"  of  Castile 
now  scoured  La  Plata  for  the  slaves  which  the  king  had  granted  to 
them  in  encomienda. '  "  To  our  esteemed  Don  Juan,  an  encomienda 
of  5,000  Indians;  to  our  beloved  Don  Enrique,  an  encomienda  of 
10,000  Indians;  to  our  cherished  Don  Manuel,  an  encomienda  of 
50,000  Indians  ";  to  have  and  to  hold, to  dishonour,  to  rob,  to  squeeze, 
to  exploit  to  death  in  mines,  to  torture,  to  mutilate,  to  feed  to  the 
dogs.  Such,  practically,  was  the  nature  of  the  encomienda.  Its 
object  was  to  stimulate  the  production  of  gold  and  silver  for  the 
Spanish  crown  and  for  St.  Peter's  of  Rome. 

Under  these  warrants — the  Requisition  and  the  Encomienda — the 
natives  of  La  Plata  were  hunted  down  with  bloodhounds,  and  thrust 
naked  into  the  frozen  mines  of  the  Andes,  which  at  the  present  time, 
and  with  all  the  aids  of  science,  machinery,  and  steam,  cannot  be  made 

'  Encomiendas  are  mentioned  by  Al-Makkari,  in  his  History  of  the  Mahometan 
Dynasties,  ed.  Gayangos,  Appendix,  p.  Ixxxiv,  in  connection  with  the  Arabian  Con- 
quest of  Spain,  as  being  of  Roman  or  other  ancient  origin. 


LA    PLATA,    <.>K    MUKNOS    AYRF.S.  219 

to  pay  the  expenses  of  their  maintenance."  There  the  Indians  were 
confined  to  the  work  and  driven  with  the  lash  until  tiiey  died.  The 
price  of  a  living  man  was  three  sheep,  of  a  woman  and  child,  a  sheep 
and  a  lamb.  The  number  of  deaths  was  so  great  that  the  corpses 
bred  pestilence;  and  in  the  mining  districts  of  the  Andes,  one  could 
scarcely  make  a  step  except  upon  the  dead  bc^dies  or  the  bones  of 
men.  This  was  the  a:ra  when  the  Coinage  Prerogative  was  stolen 
from  the  princes  of  Kurope  by  that  body  of  intriguants,  courtiers  and 
financiers  who  have  since  became  so  opulent  and  powerful. 

During  the  pillaging  aera  (15^3  to  1550)  and  the  first  mining  rera 
(1550  to  15S0)  the  whole  of  La  Plata  territory  was  explored.  In  the 
year  last  named,  and  together  with  Bolivia  and  other  territory,  it  was 
made  part  of  the  viceroyalty  of  Peru,  and  Don  Juan  de  Ciaray  of 
Lima  was  appointed  lieutenant-governor.  In  1620  the  territory  of 
La  Plata  was  separated  into  two  governments,  both  subject  to  the 
viceroyalty  of  Peru;  the  north-western  portion  being  governed  di- 
rectly from  Lima,  and  the  south-western  portion  from  Asuncion.  A 
frontier  custom-house  was  established  at  Cordova,  at  which  merchan- 
dise passing  either  way  paid  a  duty  of  50  percent,  ad  valorem — a  re- 
gulation that  was  not  relaxed  until  1665.  In  1614  the  gross  annual 
revenues  of  the  viceroyalty  of  Peru  amounted  to  five  million  silver 
pesos — about  a  million  sterling.  Of  these  revenues  about  one-third 
were  derived  from  the  taxes  on  the  production  and  coinage  of  the 
precious  metals;  one-sixth  from  the  Indian  tribute;  one-tenth  from 
excise  on  spirits  (pulque),  playing  cards,  gunpowder,  and  cock-fights;' 
and  the  balance,  or  four-tenths,  from  customs  duties  and  ecclesias- 
tical ninthsand  annats.  This  did  not  include  thebiennial  indulgences, 
which  were  sold  in  the  viceroyalty  of  Peru  every  other  year  to  the 
amount  of  about  1,200,000  silver  pesos,  or  ;^24o,ooo.  What  with  the 
alcavala  of  4  per  cent,  on  the  sale  of  goods,  and  the  profits  of  the 
Crown  on  the  sale  of  quicksilver,  the  entire  gross  revenues  of  Peru 
were  about  seven  million  silver  pesos,  or  nearly  a  million  and  a-half 
sterling.  The  expenses  of  collection  were  about  one-half,  and  the 
moiety  of  these  figures  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the  proportion  be- 
longing to  La  Plata.    (Robertson's  ".America,"  11.  511.) 

A  century  had  passed  since  Garcia  crossed  the  continent,  but  as 
yet,  beyond  the  petty  maize-gardens  of  the  natives,  scarcely  a  farm 

'  Robertson's  "Hist.  America,"  p.  503.  and  Mackenna's  "  Libro  de  Plata." 

'This  strange  basis  of  taxation  in  l.a  Plata  was  renewed  in  1SS9.  only  instead  of 

fighting-cocks  it  was  r.ice-horses.      The  basis  of  the  tax  and  the  motive  for  levying  it 

were  the  same.    The  basis  was  a  national  vice,  the  legacy  of  mining  days;  the  motive, 

an  exhausted  treasur)-.  (U.  S.  Commercial  Relations,  Consular  Reports),  1S90,  p.  113. 


220  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

had  been  planted,  and  not  a  single  manufactory  erected.  The  one 
industry  of  the  country  was  gold  and  silver  mining,  and  this  was  car- 
ried on  altogether  with  enforced  native  labour.  Everything  came  from 
Spain — horses,  gunpowder,  weapons,  blankets, sombreros,  spurs,  man- 
acles, whips,  playing-cards,  dice,  bloodhounds,  fighting-cocks  and 
papal  indulgences.  Everything  went  to  Spain,  or  else — al  diablo. 
Nothing  remained  in  La  Plata,  not  even  the  Indians.  A  few  escaped 
to  the  woods;  the  remainder,  constituting  communities,  civilized  and 
other,  which  had  once  numbered  several  millions  of  persons,  were 
being  coldly  pressed  to  death  in  the  mines. 

Upon  the  "gentle  and  honourable  cavaliers"  who  had  brought 
about  this  dismal  tragedy  of  tragedies,  neither  the  tears  of  the  In- 
dians nor  the  appeals  of  pitying  priests  produced  any  effect.  In  de- 
ference to  the  representations  of  the  latter,  the  Crown  in  1548  had 
enacted  the  Rlita  {jnitad  means  a  half),  which  sought  to  limit  the  pro- 
portion of  the  Indians  to  be  employed  in  the  mines,  and  ameliorate 
the  conditions  of  their  service;  but  the  law  was  not  obeyed,  and  it 
did  but  little  good.  In  1550  Father  Domingo,  writing  from  Peru, 
said  that  from  one-half  to  two-thirds  of  the  native  population  had 
been  destroyed  by  the  Spaniards.  Alluding  especially  to  the  Potosi 
mines,  he  said,  "  The  poor  creatures  died  like  cattle;  and  even  the 
few  who  escaped  alive  never  lived  to  reach  their  miserable  homes." 

To  ensure  the  continuance  of  the  mines  it  had  become  necessary 
to  follow  the  example  which  had  been  set  in  New  Spain.  This  was 
to  carry  on  a  systematic  slave-trade  across  the  ocean,  and  to  substi- 
tute for  the  exterminated  Americans,  new  races  from  Africa.  This 
trade  soon  grew  to  large  proportions.  The  run  from  the  coast  of 
Africa  was  comparatively  short,  and  the  slaves  were  landed  at  the 
town  of  Buenos  Ayres  and  driven  across  the  desert,  to  the  Andes.  In 
the  beginning  of  this  trade  negros  were  landed  in  the  Rio  de  la 
Plata  at  a  cost  of  about  ^^5  per  head — a  valuation  that  will  serve  to 
measure  the  little  difficulty  of  obtaining  them,  and  the  lack  of  care 
bestowed  upon  them.  Once  in  the  mines,  they  were  exploited  as 
rapidly  as  possible,  it  being  cheaper  to  fill  their  places  with  fresh  re- 
cruits than  to  take  any  trouble  with  the  old  ones.  It  was  in  the 
midst  of  this  new  and  horrible  traffic,  and  before  negros  became 
difficult  to  obtain — that  is  to  say,  in  1607 — that  the  Jesuit  fathers  of 
La  Plata  first  saw  their  way  to  save  what  was  left  of  the  Indians. 
Of  some  millions  of  this  race,  but  a  few  thousands  remained,  either 
near  the  settlements  or  hiding  from  the  slave-hunters  and  execrating 
the  name  of  Spaniard.    The  energetic  representations  of  a  few  bene- 


LA    I'LATA,  OR    HKUNOS    AYKKS.  22  1 

volent  priests  at  court,  backed  by  tlie  known  ease  of  obtainin^j  min- 
ing slaves  from  Africa,  first  met  with  success  in  1609,  when  the  king 
of  Spain  authorized  their  Provincial,  Father  Diego  de  Torres,  to  es- 
tablish missions  in  La  Plata  for  the  care  and  conversion  of  the  In- 
dians, forbade  these  missions  from  being  disturbed  by  any  oflficers  of 
the  Crown,  and  authorized  the  Provincial  to  oppose,  in  the  king's 
name,  any  such  disturbance. 

This  edict  gave  rise  to  a  most  interesting  experiment  in  govern- 
ment. Whilst  the  Puritan  fathers  were  governing  New  England  on 
the  lines  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Jesuit  fathers  organized  the 
Paraguay  missions  on  the  lines  of  the  New.  They  went  among  the 
Indians  at  risk  of  their  lives.  With  infinite  difficulty  they  persuaded 
them  to  emerge  from  their  hiding-places,  to  abandon  their  fugitive 
and  solitary  lives,  to  trust  themselves  to  the  guidance  of  white  men, 
and  to  live  in  social  communities.  The  Jesuit  priests  taught  and  en- 
couraged them  to  work  and  to  pray  as  Christians;  they  indulged  their 
native  rites  and  customs;  they  humoured  their  beliefs  and  supersti- 
tions; they  themselves  even  spoke  the  native  language,  and  avoided 
the  use  of  that  sonorous  but  treacherous  tongue  of  Castile,  which  to 
the  Indians  was  only  a  presage  of  betrayal,  violence  and  death. 

In  this  experiment  the  Jesuits  were  opposed  by  the  entire  Spanish 
population  of  La  Plata;  even  the  officials,  contrary  to  the  king's  ex- 
press orders,  throwing  obstacles  in  their  way  and  encouraging  their 
enemies.  Foremost  among  them  were  the  Paulistas,  those  bandits — 
—  NLimelucos,  they  were  called — of  the  Portuguese  frontier,  who  had 
discovered  gold  placers  in  Minhas  Geraes,  and  wanted  slaves  to  work 
them.  In  1628  these  bandits  broke  through  all  the  restraints  of  law, 
and  attacked  ttie  Jesuit  missions.  Some  of  them,  disguised  as  Jesuit 
priests,  visited  the  christianised  Indians  and  beguiled  them  into  slav- 
er)'; others  rode  boldly  into  the  Reductions,  as  the  missions  were 
called,  and  tore  the  Indian  converts  away  to  the  mines.  Everywhere 
their  steps  were  marked  with  blood;  the  Reductions  were  raised  to 
the  ground,  the  houses  ransacked,  the  churches  pillaged,  the  altars 
polluted  with  innocent  blood.      (Charlevoi.x:  Raynal.) 

Between  1628  and  1630,  over  60,000  christianized  Indians,  chiefly 
captured  in  these  raids,  were  soUl  in  the  slave  marts  of  San  Pedro  and 
Rio  Janeiro,  and  sent  to  the  gold  mines  of  Brazil.  Many  thousands 
were  slain  by  the  Paulistas,  or  died  from  fatigue  and  privation.  Mr. 
Page  has  estimated  that  altogether  over  "  100,000  christain  natives 
were  either  enslaved  or  butchered." 

The  unhappy  Jesuits  gathered  together  the  scattered  remains  of 


222  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

their  flocks — about  12,000  Indians,  exclusive  of  women  and  children 
— and  retreated  to  the  north-east  corner  of  Corrientes,  where  they 
again  commenced  their  pious  task.  Their  account  of  these  transac- 
tions, carried  to  Spain  by  Fathers  de  Montania  and  Tano,  resulted  in 
extorting  from  the  king  a  reluctant  permission  that  the  Indians  might 
be  allowed  to  bear  firearms.  In  1641,  on  the  occasion  of  another  at- 
tempt on  the  Reductions  by  the  Paulistas  and  Argentines,  the  Jesuits 
distributed  300  muskets  among  the  Guaranis;  and  these  were  used 
with  such  deadly  effect  that  but  few  of  the  white  bandits  who  at- 
tacked them  escaped  alive. 

But,  though  foiled  in  fight,  the  Buenos  Ayreans  were  fertile  in  in- 
trigue. In  January,  1640,  their  governor,  who  kept  them  in  restraint, 
mysteriously  died.  Without  waiting  for  the  royal  appointment  of  his 
successor,  they  at  once  effected  a  revolution,  took  the  royal  authority 
into  their  own  hands,  and  chose  Don  Bernardin,  a  known  enemy  of 
the  Reductions,  as  governor.  Their  champion  lost  no  time.  In  March, 
1649,  he  authorized  the  pillage  of  the  Jesuit  College  at  Asuncion. 
When  this  design  was  accomplished,  and  while  meditating  further 
mischief  to  the  Reductions,  he  was  summoned  to  give  an  account  of 
his  conduct  to  the  Viceroy  of  Peru,  and  the  sedition  came  to  an  in- 
glorious end.  In  165 1  the  PauHstas  and  Buenos  Ayreans  made  a 
fresh  attack  upon  the  Reductions,  but  the  muskets  of  the  Guaranis 
again  so  effectually  repulsed  them  that  they  abandoned  all  attempts 
.of  this  character  upon  the  missions  of  the  Paraguay. 

In  1691  the  Jesuits  established  similar  missions  among  the  Chi- 
quitos  of  Bolivia,  and  these  also  were  attempted  to  be  destroyed  and 
the  Indians  enslaved  by  the  Paulistas  and  Buenos  Ayreans;  but  after 
the  latter  had  met  with  partial  success,  and  depopulated  a  few  vil- 
lages, firearms  again  won  the  day,  and  the  bandits  were  driven  off. 

These  transactions  render  it  perfectly  plain  that  the  terms  of  sub- 
mission which  the  colonists  of  South  America  were  ordered  to  offer 
to  the  natives  before  making  "war"  upon  them,  however  soothing 
such  terms  may  have  been  to  the  king's  conscience,  were  altogether 
opposed  to  the  policy  of  his  Spanish  subjects,  and  therefore  imprac- 
ticable. This  policy  was  to  plunder  and  enslave  the  natives;  to  squeeze 
out  of  them  all  that  perfidy,  cupidity,  and  the  torture  could  extort; 
to  exploit  them  without  pause  or  mercy;  and  for  the  colonists  to 
avoid  doing  any  work  themselves.  Nowhere  do  we  find  them  engaged 
in  planting,  in  rearing  herds  of  animals,  in  gathering  the  gifts  of 
Nature,  or  in  utilising  her  forces.  These  occupations  were  relin- 
quished to  the   natives  and  the   Jesuit  priests,  against  whom  they 


I. A     PLATA,  OR    HUENOS    AYRKS.  22^ 

waged  unceasing  and  unrelenting  war.  When  the  Jesuits  first  offered 
to  civilise  and  evangelise  the  natives,  the  colonists  opposed;  when 
the  king  issued  peremptory  orders  that  the  Jesuits  and  their  converts 
should  not  be  molested,  the  colonists  disobeyed  and  revolted;  when, 
notwithstanding  their  enmity,  the  Christian  Commonwealth  of  the 
Indians  grew  into  an  imposing  fabric,  they  once  more  revolted  against 
the  royal  authority. 

An  eye-witness  informs  us  what  they  did  with  the  Mission  Indians. 
In  "A  Relation  to  Mr.  B.  M. 's  Voyage  to  Buenos  Aires,  from  hence 
by  Land  to  Potosi"  (London,  1716),  the  author  says  that  in  this 
frozen  region,  where  even  on  the  surface  it  never  thaws  till  daylight, 
he  saw  in  one  place  (in  the  year  17 13)  2,200  captured  Indians  driven 
into  a  paddock  like  sheep,  and  there  parcelled  out  to  various  mine- 
owners,  by  whom  they  were  driven  to  the  workings  under  ground. 
It  was  death  to  attempt  escape ;  it  was  death  to  remain,  for  they  died 
in  platoons.  This  was  the  price  of  gold,  the  cost  of  production — 
Death. 

In  1723,  Antiquera,  governor  of  Buenos  Ayres,  took  upon  himself 
to  order  the  banishment  of  the  Jesuits  from  the  country,  and  he  or- 
ganized another  raid  upon  the  Paraguay  missions.  After  the  first 
surprise,  the  Guarani  converts  recovered  themselves,  met  his  forces 
in  the  field,  and  stopped  his  further  operations.  When  this  news 
reached  Lima  a  royal  battalion  was  sent  against  Antiquera,  who  was 
arrested,  carried  to  Lima,  and  there  executed,  in  1731. 

Several  governors  of  Buenos  Ayres  now  followed  each  other  in 
rapid  succession — Zavala,  Barna,  and  Saroeta.  The  burning  ques- 
tion that  divided  the  colonists  was  still  the  mine  exploitation  of  the 
christian  natives.  In  1732  this  question  occasioned  another  rebel- 
lion. The  pro-slavery  and  anti-Jesuit  party  were  called  the  Com- 
muneros,  or  Home  Rulers ;  the  king's  party,  the  Contrabandos.  Upon 
the  outbreak  of  this  revolution  the  Communei"os  deposed  the  king's 
officers,  appointed  a  provincial  Junta,  and  elected,  as  president  of  the 
province,  Don  Luis  Jose  de  Barreyo.  Upon  evincing  some  hesita- 
tion to  attack  the  christian  Reductions,  this  officer  was  deposed  in 
favour  of  Don  Mannel  de  Ruiloba,  who,  for  the  same  reason,  was  also 
deposed.  The  Communeros  then  dissolved  their  Junta  and  appointed 
a  dictator  to  carry  out  their  designs.  Before  these  could  be  effected 
they  were  met  and  defeated  by  the  king's  forces  under  Zavala,  and 
all  these  rebellions  and  revolutions  were  brought  to  an  end. 

By  this  time  the  price  of  heathen  negros  brought  from  Africa  IkuI 
increased  to  ^15  each — a  price  so  great  as  to  be  regarded  as  an  in- 


224  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

tolerable  burden  by  the  colonists  who  owned  the  mines;  and  a  fresh 
effort  was  made  to  capture  and  obtain  as  slaves,  and  for  nothing,  the 
christian  Indians  of  the  Paraguay  missions.  From  arms  the  colonists 
had  recourse  to  intrigue,  and  they  appealed  from  the  plains  of  Tucu- 
man  to  the  Court  of  Madrid. 

About  the  year  1743  the  Christian  missions  were  in  the  enjoyment 
of  unprecedented  prosperity  and  power.  Those  of  the  Parana  and 
Uruguay  numbered  about  140,000  souls;  the  Chiquitos  Reductions 
numbered  24,000;  the  Abipones  and  others  about  6,000:  total,  about 
170,000  converts;  of  whom  12,000  to  14,000  were  provided  with 
horses,  arms  and  ammunition.  In  thirty  Reductions  the  converts  pos- 
sessed 769,590  horses,  13,900  mules,  and  271,540  sheep,  besides  large 
herds  of  cattle  and  other  animals.  It  has  been  suggested  that  this 
prosperity  was  not  accompanied  by  any  increase  of  population.  The 
Abbe  Raynal  and  other  writers  have  even  assigned  causes  for  this 
phenomenon,  such  as  changed  habits  of  life,  the  prevalence  of  small- 
pox and  fevers,  etc.,  but  they  have  one  and  all  omitted  to  supply  any 
evidence  in  support  of  the  premiss.  Taking  into  account  the  small 
numbers  of  the  natives  whom  the  Jesuits  managed  to  collect  together 
after  the  tragedy  of  1628,  and  the  mendacious  reports  which  their 
enemies  circulated  at  Court,  the  present  writer  is  compelled  to  regard 
the  supposed  absence  of  increase  among  the  natives  as  having  little 
foundation  in  fact. 

However  this  may  be,  the  prosperity  of  the  Reductions  furnished  a 
weapon  to  their  unscrupulous  enemies;  and  this  was  sharpened  bv  the 
straitened  condition  of  the  royal  finances.  In  vain  the  Jesuits  pleaded 
the  evangelisation»of  the  natives;  in  vain  their  docility,  their  indus- 
try, their  sobriety;  in  vain  that  priceless  gift  of  nature,  the  Cinchona 
bark,  which  they  had  discovered  and  gathered  from  the  trees  of  La 
Paz,  to  lay  at  the  feet  of  suffering  mankind.  These  sentimental  pleas 
did  not  fill  the  king's  coffers.  The  mines  were  declining  for  lack  of 
cheap  labour;  the  price  of  negro  slaves  had  become  prohibitive;  and 
but  one  resource  seemed  open  to  the  Treasury — to  reduce  the  Re- 
ductions and  thrust  the  christain  converts  into  the  mines.  The  an- 
nual revenues  of  the  Crown  had  fallen  from  401  million  reales  de  vel- 
lon  in  the  reign  of  Philip  IV.,  to  42  millions  in  that  of  Philip  V.  The 
annual  expenses  had  risen  from  183  millions  to  more  than  200  mil- 
lions. The  king's  Fifth  from  the  American  mines,  which  formerly  was 
paid  without  a  murmur,  was  now  much  evaded,  and  had  seriously 
dwindled  away.  The  christian  Indians  must  go  into  the  mines.  Be- 
sides, were  not  the  Jesuits  accused  of  amassing  great  treasures  for 


LA     PLATA,    OK     IIUENOS    AVKKS.  2  2^ 

themselves?  Were  their  churches  not  laden  with  plate?*  Hat!  ii  not 
been  allej^ed  that  their  christian  republic,  their  impcrium  in  inipcrio, 
threatened  tiie  integrity  of  the  Crown  ?  Assuredly  the  missions  ought 
to  be  destroyed,  and  the  proiluce  of  the  mines  increased. 

In  1759,  Pombal,  the  prime  minister  of  Portugal,  had  banished  the 
Jesuits  from  the  Portuguese  possessions,  and,  loading  a  ship  with 
them  in  Portugal,  had  despatched  it  to  Civita  Vecchia — in  a  word,  he 
had  sent  them  back  to  Rome.  Here  was  example  added  to  reason. 
The  result  of  these  considerations  was  a  triumph  for  the  colonists  of 
La  Plata.  In  1767  the  fiat  went  forth,  and  the  Jesuits  were  banished 
by  Charles  III.  from  Spain  ami  its  colonies.  Within  three  months' 
time  this  edict  was  enforced  in  La  Plata,  and  the  christian  "republic" 
was  levelled  to  the  dust. 

In  his  letter  to  the  Pope,  apologising  for  this  transaction,  the  king 
terms  it  a  measure  of  "  political  economy  ";  and  there  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  royal  word.  His  first  step  was  to  ship  all  the  Jesuits  of 
Spain  to  Rome;  his  next,  to  hunt  down  the  222  Jesuits  of  La  Plata 
and  deport  them  from  Buenos  Ayres;  then  he  authorised  the  colon- 
ists to  plunder  tlie  Jesuit  colleges  and  churches;  finally,  he  let  them 
loose  upon  the  devoted  Indians. 

The  result  can  be  told  in  a  few  words :  the  midnight  raid,  the  chain- 
gang,  the  mines,  torture,  and  extinction.  In  1801  a  census  of  the  In- 
dian population  was  made  by  Don  Joaquin  de  Soria.  There  were  in 
the  thirty  missions  45,639  souls;  less  by  98,398  than  in  the  year  1  767. 
In  this  interval  of  thirty-four  years  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  ori- 
ginal number,  to  say  nothing  of  the  natural  increase,  had  disappeared; 
horses,  cattle  and  sheep  were  gone;  the  fields  were  destroyed;  the 
houses  pulled  to  pieces  or  burned  down,  and  nought  remained  save  a 
few  hovels  and  a  crumbling  adobe  church,  with  faded  frescoes  and 
a  cracked  bell. 

In  August.  1776,  the  provinces  of  La  Plata  were  separated  from 
Peru,  and  together  with  several  other  portions  of  that  viceroyalty 
erected  into  a  separate  viceroyalty,  the  fourth  of  that  rank  in  Spanish 
America.  It  was  called  La  Plata.  This  government  consisted  of  the 
following  provinces: — Ruenos  Ayres,  Rio  de  la  Plata, Tucuman  to  the 
Andes  and  the  Vermejo,  all  of  Paraguay,  and  all  of  the  present  state 
of  Bolivia,  including  the  mining  districts  of  Potosf,  Oruro  and  La  Paz. 

*  Says  Postlethwayt  (Diet.,  art.  "(lold"),  "The  richest  k"'''  '•'>^-'*<Jcros  (washings) 
of  Chile  fall  into  the  laps  of  the  Jesuits,  who  farm  or  purchase  abundance  of  mines 
and  lawaderos,  which  are  wrought  for  their  benefit  by  their  senants.'"  The  Ix-iief  that 
the  Jesuits  possessed  rich  mines  in  which  they  employed  their  converts  to  work  in 
secret  is  not  even  yet  extinguished.  See  a  curious  note  printed  in  1882  by  the  "  In- 
dustrial "  of  Buenos  Ayres,  and  published  in  Mackenna's  "  Libro  de  Plata.' 


226  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

About  the  5'ear  1825  two  Englishmen,  Head  and  Miers,  traveled 
extensively  in  Buenos  Ayres,  and  published  details  concerning  the 
ruin  of  this  country  by  the  early  Spanish  concjuerors  and  miners,  its 
present  poverty,  and  the  extravagant  and  lying  accounts  sent  to  Eng- 
land for  the  purposes  of  speculation.  Mr.  Miers  said  that  the  pop- 
ulation, wealth,  and  resources  of  the  country  were  everywhere  exag- 
gerated, that  phantoms  of  wealth  and  power  were  conjured  up  to  feed 
the  appetite  of  cupidity,  that  the  mining  companies  recently  organ- 
ized in  England  to  work  these  fabulous  resources  would  probably  all 
come  to  grief,  and  that  he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  tear  off  the  mask  of 
deception  which  covered  the  real  indigence  of  this  exploited  country. 
But  these  revelations  went  unheeded  in  1825,  and  were  forgotten  in 
1875,  when  precisely  the  same  sort  of  deception  was  practised  which 
had  succeeded  so  well  fifty  years  before.  With  the  collapse  of  the 
boom  of  1875,  iTiining  in  Buenos  Ayres  happily  came  to  an  end. 

Until  the  invention  of  the  power-drill  and  the  cyanide  process, 
mining  for  the  precious  metals  was  on  the  average  the  most  unpro- 
fitable of  all  industries.  Many  states  and  communities,  aware  of  this 
fact,  entirely  forbade  its  continuance.  The  richest  mining  countries 
were  among  the  poorest  in  general  wealth.  The  contents  of  a  mine 
when  once  exhausted  can  never  be  renewed;  the  value  of  the  newly- 
added  product  (when  measured  by  other  commodities)  must  always 
tend  to  diminish,  because,  at  least  in  peaceful  times,  the  quantity  of 
the  former  always  tends  to  increase — a  fact  due  to  the  imperishable 
character  of  these  metals,  and  the  fabrication  of  a  certain  proportion 
of  them  into  coins.  After  its  initial  phases,  mining  requires  large 
capital  and  elaborate  machinery  and  plant.  As  mines  are  usually  in 
remote  and  inaccessible  regions,  it  seldom  paid  to  rem.ove  the  plant; 
so  that  when  a  mine  "shut  down,"  the  plant  was  commonly  a  total 
loss.  When  a  mine  becomes  barren,  the  owners  do  not  abandon  their 
costly  plant  at  once,  but  keep  on  in  the  hope  that  the  mine  will  im- 
prove. For  these  reasons  mines  are  often  worked  for  long  periods 
at  a  loss,  and  with  only  a  remote  prospect  of  gain — a  prospect  sus- 
tained by  occasional  instances  of  good  fortune,  but  far  more  often 
frustrated  by  bad. 

During  the  first  twenty  years  after  its  discovery  by  the  Spaniards 
there  was  no  mining  in  La  Plata,  only  plunder  of  the  Indians,  who 
were  forced  into  a  few  wretched  alluvions,  or  placers,  and  compelled 
to  produce  a  stipulated  quantum  of  gold,  or  suffer  the  torture.  Min- 
ing began  with  the  opening  of  Potosi  in  1535.  This  is  a  mountainous 
district,  about  eighteen  miles  in  circuit  and  three  miles  above  the  sea 


LA     PLATA,    OR    BUENOS    AYRKS.  227 

level.  Its  opening  by  the  Spaniards  cost  the  lives  of  millions  of  In- 
dians. During  the  first  ten  years  the  workings  were  small  and  de- 
sultory.' Systematic  working  commenced  in  1545.  From  1545  to 
1547  it  was  considered  a  bad  month  when  the  mines  failed  to  yield 
§1,500.000;  from  1548  to  1551  the  product  fell  below  $1,000,000 
a  month.  From  1556  to  157S  the  average  annual  product  was 
$2,000,000;  from  1579  to  1736  the  average  annual  product  rose  to 
about  $3,000,000;  from  1737  to  1789  it  fell  to  $2,500,000;  from  1535 
to  1 7S9  the  estimated  product  was  $788,000,000;  from  official  records, 
the  Prefect  of  Potosi  calculated  the  total  product,  in  1835,  '^^  734.- 
000,000  dollars  or  pesos;  altogether,  from  first  to  last,  it  was  prob- 
ably (including  smuggling)  about  750  millions,  or  more  than  twice 
the  product  of  the  Comstock  mines. 

The  principal  mining  districts  in  the  viceroyalty  of  La  Plata  proper 
were  La  Paz,  Carangas,  and  Oruro.  In  the  list  published  by  Helars 
from  the  records  of  the  Spanish  Chancery,  it  appears  that  there  were 
no  less  than  twenty-two  districts  worked  for  gold  and  silver,  and  that 
in  these  districts  there  were  simultaneously  worked  27  principal  mines 
of  silver,  30  gold,  7  copper,  7  lead,  and  2  tin.  Humboldt  estimated 
their  united  product,  at  the  period  of  the  revolt  from  Spain,  at  $4,- 
200,000  dollars  per  annuuL  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  no  native  will 
invest  his  capital  in  the  working  of  mines.  He  will  search  for  mines, 
develop  them  until  they  look  promising  enough  to  sell,  and  then 
scour  the  earth  for  "foreign  capital"  to  purchase  or  work  them. 

In  1825,  after  the  independence  of  the  Argentine  Confederation 
was  acknowledged  by  Great  Britain,  a  mining  boom  was  organized 
in  La  Plata,  and  several  millions  sterling  of  British  capital  were  in- 
vested in  enterprises,  not  one  of  which  ever  paid  a  divitlend.  In  1851 
Dalence  said,  "  In  Potosi  there  are  26  silver  mines  working,  more 
than  1,800  abandoned;  Porco,  ;i;^  working,  15 19  abandoned;  Chay- 
anta,  8  working,  130  abandoned;  Chicas,  22  working,  650  abandoned; 
Lipez,  2  working,  760  abandoned;  Oruro  and  vicinty,  11  working, 
1,215  abandoned;  also  200  gold  mines  abandoned;  Poopo  15  silver 
mines  working,  316  abandoned;  Carangas,  4  working,  285  aban- 
doned; Cicasica,  9  working,  320  abandoned;  Inquisivi,  5  working, 
160  abandoned;  Araca,  4  gold  mines  working,  hundreds  abandoned; 
Soratu,  7  working,  over  500  abandoned;  Berenguela  de  Pacajes,  all 
abandoned,  although  many  were  rich;  Arque,  2  working,  100  aban- 
doned; in  Ayopapa,  many  silver  mines,  and  in  Chocjuecama  many 
gold  ones,  all  abandoned."  Altogether  there  were  about  8,300  mines, 
*  Circillaso  dc  la  Vega,  who  visited  the  mines  in  person. 


228  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

of  which  150  were  being  worked.  These  numbers  must  have  in- 
cluded prospects  as  well  as  mines.® 

At  a  later  period  there  occurred  a  slight  revival  of  mining  in  these 
districts;  but  as  they  now  belonged  to  Bolivia,  and  no  longer  to  La 
Plata,  they  need  no  further  mention  in  this  place.  Among  the  best 
data  on  the  subject  of  the  mines  of  La  Plata  are  the  reports  of  the 
British  consuls  in  the  Consular  Reports,  and  the  American  consuls 
in  the  "United  States  Commercial  Relations,"  1875,  and  the  year 
following,  also  in  "El  Libro  de  Plata,"  por  B.  Vicuna  I^ackenna, 
Santiago  de  Chile,  1882,  in  which  the  author  concludes  the  subject 
with  these  significant  words  :  "There  is  no  more  misleading  name 
than  that  of  La  Plata:  that  country's  true  source  of  wealth  is  not 
silver  mines,  but  wool  and  hides  "  (p.  607).  To  this  summary  are  now 
to  be  added  live  and  slaughtered  animals,  wheat  and  provisions. 

At  the  period  of  the  discovery  of  La  Plata  by  the  Spaniards  the 
principal  coins  of  Spain  were  the  gold  castellano,  containing  about 
63}^  grains  fine,  identical  with  the  Arabian  dinar  and  Byzantine 
solidus;  the  gold  ducat  of  about  56  grains  fine,  identical  with  the 
Venetian  sequin;  the  real  de  plata  of  51^  grains  fine  silver,  and  the 
billon  maravedi  of  1.52  grains  of  fine  silver.  These  coins  were 
valued  in  maravedis  as  follows: — the  maravedi,  i;  the  real,  34;  the 
ducat,  383;  and  the  castellano,  490.  On  or  before  1579  the  ducat  was 
raised  to  434  and  the  castellano  to  556  maravedis.  The  castellano 
was  sometimes  called  "a  piece  of  gold,"  and  sometimes  "  a  gold 
peso";  the  ducat  was  sometimes  called  "a  gold  real."  The  "dobla' 
and  the  "pistole  "  were  double  ducats.  The  "  escudo  "  was  a  silver 
piece  of  8  reals,  or  piesa  de  a  ocho,"  or  "peso  fuerte, "  or,  as  it  was 
afterwards  called,  a  hard  dollar.''  The  "peso  sencillo,"  or  soft  dol- 
lar, contained  304^  grains  of  fine  silver  (about  6  reals).  This  was 
the  value  of  the  Paraguay  and  River  Plate  peso,  as  fixed  by  the  royal 
ordinance  of  1618.  The  following  data,  from  the  year  1535  to  the 
year  1620,  are  taken  from  the  "  Recopilaciou  de  Leyes  de  los  Reynos 
de  las  Indias,"  or  code  of  laws  relating  to  America,  published  by 
royal  authority  at  Madrid,  1774. 

1492.  One-half  of  all  gold  or  silver  obtained  in  America  must  be 
paid  to  the  king.  During  the  government  of  Ovando  in  Hispaniola 
this  requirement  was  reduced  to  one-third;  and  in  1504  to  one-fifth 
(quinto),  at  which  rate  it  continued  until  1736.  This  tax  is  of  very 
ancient  origin.    In  India  the  king  exacted  one-half  of  gold  and  silver 

*  "  Bosquejo  estadistico  de  Bolivia,"  por  Jose  Maria  Dalence,  Chuquisaca,  1851, 
pp.  293-4.         ''  Vethake,  "  Cyc.  Americana." 


LA    PLATA,    OR    BUENOS    AVRES. 

spoil  or  produce."  In  Japan  the  emperor  exacted  two-thirds.'  Tlie 
government  of  Athens  exacted  one-twenty-fourth  from  the  mines  of 
Laurium.'"  The  temple  of  Delphos  exacted  a  tenth  from  all  gold 
mines.  The  government  of  Rome  levied  a  similar  tax  ";  and  although 
the  rate  is  not  mentioned,  it  was  probably  one-tenth."  One-fifth  was 
the  proportion  demanded  by  the  Koran  and  exacted  by  the  earliest 
Moslem  caliphs  on  both  spoil  and  produce.''  The  same  proportion 
was  reserved  for  the  caliph  by  the  Moslems  in  Spain.  '*  The  Christian 
kings  followed  this  example,  and  even  exceeded  the  Moslems  in  avi- 
dity. From  1 147  to  1550  the  king  of  Portugal  exacted  one-half  of 
their  produce  from  the  gold  washers  of  the  upper  Tagus. "  In  1379 
King  John  of  Castile  declared  the  mines  "free  of  lords  and  church," 
and  subject  only  to  the  royal  fifth  of  the  gross  produce.  In  1578 
Queen  Elizabeth  of  England  stipulated  with  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert 
that  he  should  pay  the  Crown  one-fifth  of  all  the  gold  and  silver  he 
might  obtain  in  Nova  Scotia."  At  the  present  time  the  Vigra  cop- 
per and  gold  mine.  North  Wales,  besides  rental,  pays  the  Crown  of 
England  one-fifteenth  of  its  produce.  The  quinto  tax  had  much  to 
do  with  the  monetary  systems  not  only  of  La  Plata,  but  of  other  coun- 
tries, and  its  study  is  commended  to  those  misled  "  economists  "  who 
imagine  that  the  cost  of  producing  the  precious  metals  has  anything 
to  do  with  the  current  value  of  coins. 

15 19.  All  gold  and  silver  bullion  obtained  in  America  shall  be  taken 
to  the  governor  of  the  province  wherein  obtained,  or  to  the  justice, 
or  royal  assayer,  or  to  the  mint-master,  if  there  be  one,  who,  after 
having  retained  one-fifth  for  the  king,  shall  stamp  the  remainder  with 
its  value  in  Spanish  coins  of  the  same  metal,  enhanced  to  the  extent 
of  the  value  of  the  dues  (derechos)  pertaining  to  the  king.  These  last 
appear  to  have  been  one-and-a-half  per  cent,  ad  valorem.  This  law 
forbids  private  coinage;  it  secured  two  payments  to  the  king  so  long 
as  the  bullion  remained  in  America,  and  further  payments  whenever 
it  was  sent  for  coinage  to  Spain.  It  was  repeated  in  1535  with  the 
penalty  of  death  for  infraction. 

1535.  The  law  of  this  date  establishes  the  first  mints  in  America, 
namely,  those  of  Mexico,  Santa  Fe,  San  Luis  Potosi  and  Axiqui- 
pilco,  all  these  places  being  in  Mexico;  also  a  mint  to  coin  billon 
pieces  for  the  king  at  San  Domingo,  in  the  island  of  Hispaniola.  Be- 
sides the  quinto  or  fifth  on  production,  there  were  levied  three  reals 

*  "Code  of  Manu."  viii.  p.  39.  •  "  Hist.  Money  in  Ancient  States,"  p.  54. 
'"  Xenophon,  "  I>e  Vectipal."  "  Li\'y,  xxiv,  p.  21.  '*  Adam's  "  Roman  Antiq.," 
voc.  "  Decum.-c.'"  '^  W  Koran,  c,  viii,  of  Spoils.  **  Calcott's  "  Spain,"  vol.  i,  p.  95. 
'*  Calcott's  "Spain,"  vol.  i,  p.  66.      '•  "  Hist.  I'rec.  Metals."  p.  37. 


230  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

on  every  mark  weight  of  silver,  namely,  two  reals  to  cover  the  cost 
of  coinage  and  one  real  for  the  king's  seigniorage.  The  derecho  of 
i]4  percent.,  though  not  mentioned,  appears  to  have  remained.  All 
bullion  presented  for  coinage  must  exhibit  proofs  of  its  having  paid 
the  quinto,  or  else  it  is  liable  to  confiscation.  The  exportation  of 
coins,  except  to  Spain,  is  forbidden.  The  date  of  this  law  proves  that 
the  celebrated  mining  district  of  Potosi,  in  Peru  or  La  Plata,  was 
opened  ten  years  earlier  than  is  commonly  supposed. 

1535.  Counterfeit  money  in  circulation  ordered  to  be  traced  up 
and  seized.      Mint  ofifices  to  be  overhauled. 

1537.  The  American  mints  are  permitted  to  coin  "reales  de  aocho" 
(pesos),  halves,  quarters,  and  eighths,  "  como  en  estos  reynos, "  the 
same  as  in  Spain. 

1544.  The  law  of  1537  is  repeated  more  explicitly,  "the  coins  to 
be  of  same  weight,  fineness,  and  value  as  those  of  Castile." 

1546.  Changes  the  ratio  of  value  between  the  precious  metals,  and 
therefore  the  weights  of  coins. 

1550.  Forbids  private  dealings  in  gold  dust  or  bullion. 

1551.  Besides  the  quinto,  a  duty  (derecho)  of  1%  per  cent,  ad 
valorem  is  made  payable  to  the  king  on  all  gold  and  silver.  This  law 
(the  "covos")  is  repeated  in  1552. 

1565.  Silver  coins  may  continue  to  be  struck  in  America,  but 
neither  gold  nor  billon  coins.  The  explanation  of  this  regulation  is 
found  in  the  Sacred  Myth  of  Gold,  and  the  facility  it  offered  to  the 
Spanish  emperor-king  to  raise  the  value  of  that  metal  by  proclama- 
tion. After  plundering  America — the  plunder  consisting  chiefly  of 
gold — the  Spaniards  opened  Potosi,  and  commenced  mining,  when 
the  produce  became  chiefly  of  silver.  Believing  that  the  seigniorage 
upon  gold  would  thenceforth  yield  but  a  small  revenue,  the  king  de- 
termined to  enhance  the  value  of  the  metal  by  decree,  and  to  enjoy 
the  entire  advantage  of  this  enhancement  by  coining  the  gold  himself, 
and  forbidding  the  coinage  of  that  metal  in  America.  The  valuation 
of  gold  to  silver  in  the  Flemish  and  Austrian  coins  of  Charles,  pre- 
vious to  1546,  was  I  to  lo.  755  ;  in  that  year  it  was  raised  to  i  to  'i-Z'S'^Z- 

1565.  Counterfeit  money  reported  in  circulation,  and  ordered  to 
be  traced  and  seized.      Mint  offices  to  be  overhauled. 

1567.  The  seigniorage  law  of  1535  is  modified  by  remitting  the  two 
reals  for  cost  of  coinage,  and  retaining  the  one  real  seigniorage  due 
to  the  king.    The  derecho  or  ' '  covos  "of  i  ^  per  cent,  also  remained. 

1579.  The  law  recites  that  not  merely  of  gold  and  silver,  but  of  all 
metals  and  minerals,  one-fifth  part  belongs  of  right  to  the  king.      In 


LA    PLATA,    OR    HL'ENOS    AYRES.  23 1 

taxing  gold  and  silver  there  shall  first  be  exacted  ijj  per  cent,  of 
their  weight  to  compensate  the  royal  smelters,  weighers  and  assayers, 
and  immediately  thereafter  20  per  cent,  of  their  weight  for  the  king 


(Law  XIX  of  the  Royal  Fifths). 

1579.    In  retaining  the  derecnos  an( 


k1  the  quinto  of  gold  the  royal 
officials  shall  count  at  the  rate  of  24  maravedis  to  the  quilate  (carat) 
of  gold,  or  556  maravedis  to  the  castellan(j  of  22^4  carats,  "which  is 
its  just  and  true  value."  The  carat  is  usually  regarded  as  a  measure 
of  fineness;  here  it  is  evidently  used  as  a  weight.  If  it  was  a  weight, 
we  can  only  suppose  that  it  weighed  2.96  English  grains,  because  in 
weighing  gold  there  were  4  Spanish  grains  (the  silver  mark  was  di- 
vided into  4.608  grains)  to  the  carat,  and  4,800  grains  to  the  mark, 
which  both  as  to  gold  and  silver  contained  3,550^  grains  English. 
In  such  case  the  castellano  weighed  66-3  English  grains.  This  must 
mean  gross  or  standard  weight,  including  alloy ;  but  we  are  not  at  all 
confident  that  the  calculation  is  correct. 

1579.  By  the  same  law  silver  was  valued  at  2,050  maravedis  "per 
mark  of  eight  ounces  of  five  pesos."  We  can  make  nothing  definite 
of  this.  Here  the  maravedi  is  ordered  to  contain  1.73  English  grains 
of  fine  silver;  whereas,  according  to  its  relation  (272)  to  the  dollar, 
or  peso,  or  piece-of-8,  it  could  not  have  contained  over  1.52  grains 
fine.  Perhaps  it  was  an  attempt  to  change  the  ratio  to  14I2,  thus: 
100  grains  of  gold  coined  into  834  maravedis,  and  100  grains  of  silver 
coined  into  57.74  maravedis. 

1581.  The  preamble  sets  forth  the  vexatious  diversity  of  weights 
and  measures  employed  in  the  various  viceroyalties  or  provinces  of 
America,  and  substitutes  for  all  of  them  the  weights  and  measures  of 
Toledo  (New  Castile),  and  the  vara,  or  yard,  of  (Old)  Castile. 

15S9-95.  Gold,  silver,  and  billon  money  authorised  to  be  coined  in 
Hispaniola;  the  billon  money  to  be  legal-tender  at  fixed  rates,  the 
refuser  to  be  punished.  This  money  was  apparently  intended  to  cir- 
culate in  all  of  the  American  provinces. 

1591.  The  law  of  1550  is  modified  by  repealing  the  prohibition  as 
to  dealings  in  gold  dust  or  bullion,  and  re-enacting  the  prohibition 
to  deal  in  silver  bullion.  The  viceroys  are  to  furnish  to  individuals, 
without  limit, coined  money  in  exchange  for  silver  bullion  upon  which 
the  king's'Fifth  and  other  duties  have  been  paid.  This  appears  to 
be  a  sort  of  counter-move  to  the  "individual "  or  "free  coinage  " 
legislation  of  the  Netherlands  in  1572.  It  was  the  first  Spanish  ^\fp 
toward  individual  coinage. 

1595.   The  following  coins,  struck  in  Hispaniola  under  the  king's 


232  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

warrant,  were  declared  legal-tender  in  that  island  under  heavy  penal- 
ties; peso  de  plata,  450  maravedis,  or  225  quartos;  escudo  de  oro,  400 
maravedis,  or  200  quartos;  real  de  plata,  34  maravedis,  or  17  quartos. 
Bad  (false  ?)  money  was  stated  to  be  in  circulation  in  Hispaniola. 

1596.  The  colonial  ofificial  practice  of  exacting  the  king's  dues  in 
heavy  coins  and  paying  the  public  expenses  with  light  ones,  is  for- 
bidden. 

1596.  The  viceroy  of  Peru  is  ordered  to  confine  the  Indians  to  the 
work  of  mining,  and  not  to  permit  them  to  leave  the  mines  ("  Recop. ," 

II,  P-  257)- 

1603.  The  value  of  all  billon  and  copper  coins  is  doubled  by  de- 
cree of  Philip  III.,  in  Spain.  This  decree  brought  about  a  virtual 
suspension  of  coin  payments  caused  by  the  exportation  from  the 
kingdom  of  full-weighted  gold  and  silver  coins.  Premium  on  silver 
coins  in  Spain,  40  per  cent,  in  billon  coins.  Great  confusion  in  the 
Spanish  monetary  system.  The  Spanish- American  viceroys,  by  being 
obliged  to  suspend  individual  coinage,  only  made  matters  worse. 

1608.  The  viceroys  of  Spain  are  again  permitted  to  coin  money 
for  individual  account,  and  without  any  more  specific  limit  than  they 
may  deem  necessary.  This  appears  to  be  a  more  complete  measure 
of  private  coinage  than  the  ordinance  of  1591,  because  it  says  no- 
thing about  the  king's  Fifth  or  other  dues.  It  was  the  second  Spanish 
step  towards  individual  coinage. 

1611.  Final  expulsion  of  the  Moors  from  Granada.  In  1380  Spain 
had  a  population  of  21,700,000;  in  1492  nearly  all  the  Moors  were 
expelled,  and  the  population  dropped  to  13  or  14  millions;  in  1609 
the  population  had  increased  to  20  millions;  in  1610-1 1  the  remainder 
of  the  Moors,  about  one  million,  were  expelled.  In  the  course  of  a 
century,  through  this  and  other  causes,  the  population  dropped  to 
eight  millions.  Only  recently  has  it  increased  to  the  numbers  of  the 
fourteenth  century 

1618.  The  peso  of  the  Indian  tribute,  and  of  Paraguay,  Rio  de 
la  Plata,  and  Tucuman,  may  be  discharged  with  six  reals. 

1620.  From  all  silver  bullion  brought  to  the  king's  officers  shall 
first  be  deducted  the  king's  Fifth,"  and  his  prerogative  (derecho)  of 
mintage,  2  reals  per  mark,  and  his  seigniorage,  i  real  per  mark;  then 

"  The  evasion  of  the  quinto  at  this  period  was  common.  Captain  Shelvock  cap- 
tured a  Spanish  vessel  in  1721  which  was  laden  with  a  quantity  of  preserved  fruit 
packed  in  boxes.  Upon  opening  these  boxes  some  of  them  were  found  to  con- 
tain cakes  of  silver  bullion  (Mavor's  Voyages,  iv,  iiS).  Numerous  other  instances 
of  like  kind  prove  that  the  smuggling  of  silver  out  of  Spanish  America  had  become  an 
organized  trade. 


LA     PLATA,    OR    ItUENOS    AVRES.  233 

out  of  the  remaining  bullioi)  there  shall  be  coined  67  reals  to  the 
mark  weight.  In  this  year  base  silver  money  made  its  appearance 
in  New  Ciranada,  and  is  noticed  in  one  of  the  laws. 

1632.  Royal  taxes  on  gold,  and  taxes  paid  in  gold,  shall  be  re- 
mitted to  the  king  in  the  same  metal,  and  not  paid  with  silver  or  any 
other  metal  or  commodity  (Law  XX  of  the  Royal  Fifths).  This  im- 
plies that  the  king  derived  some  advantage  from  gold  which  he  did 
not  from  silver.  This  may  have  been  in  the  change  of  ratio  from 
13/^  to  i4J^,  suggested  under  the  year  1579.  It  certainly  did  not 
arise  out  of  the  seigniorage  on  gold  coinage.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  may  only  have  been  the  elaboration  of  a  similar  decree  issued  in 
1557,  designed  to  prevent  fraud  on  the  part  of  the  officials. 

About  1640,  reign  of  Philip  IV.  The  value  of  the  billon  and  cop- 
per coins  of  Spain  again  doubled  by  decree;  no  limit  assigned  to 
their  fabrication,  and  no  adequate  safeguards  provided  against 
counterfeits.  The  consequence  was  that  the  country  was  flooded  with 
base  coins  made  in  Germany,  Flanders,  France,  England  and  Italy. 

1643.  No  modification  of  royal  decrees  fixing  the  value  of  money 
is  to  be  permitted  or  countenanced. 

1645.  From  the  Basileus,  Alexis  II.,  down  to  1572  in  Holland, 
or  to  1645  in  Spanish-America,  when  Philip  IV.  permanently  threw 
open  the  viceregal  mints  to  "free"  coinage,  the  issuer  and  owner 
of  the  monetary  measure  was  the  King  of  each  of  the  states  that  had 
emerged  from  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  empire.  These  princes  so  fre- 
quently and  grossly  abused  their  prerogative  that  the  demands  of 
commerce  caused  it  to  be  finally  swept  away  by  the  hardly  less  ob- 
jectionable device  of  "free"  coinage.  The  welfare  of  nations  will 
eventually  compel  the  prerogative  to  be  resumed. 

In  the  reign  of  Philip  V.  (1700-45)  the  floating  debt  of  Spain  was 
funded.  This  debt  consisted  of  Assignments  of  .\nticipations  (ex- 
chequer bills),  temporary  debts  created  by  the  Bureau  of  Loans, 
Tickets  of  Subsistence  (military  scrip),  anil  Mint  Bills  (bullion  re- 
ceipts ?).  In  October  1710,  all  these  demantls  upon  the  Slate  were 
ordered  to  be  funded,  with  or  without  consent  of  the  creditors,  into 
5  per  cent,  stock.  At  this  period  (tiie  close  of  Louis  XIV's  reign), 
the  finances  of  France  were  in  such  a  deplorable  condition  that  500 
patents  of  nobility  were  sold  by  the  French  government  for  2,000 
^cus  each,  the  currency  was  depleteil,  prices  declined,  and  a  vortex 
was  being  formed  which  was  soon  to  be  filled  by  the  paper  emissions 
of  John  Law.'"  Under  these  circumstances  there  was  no  market  in 
"  "  Money  and  Civiliz.ition,"  p.  231. 


234  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

France  for  the  Spanish  stock.  Hence  its  emission  in  place  of  the 
floating  debt  caused  a  violent  outcry  from  those  who  had  expected 
earlier  payment  of  their  claims.  Indeed,  the  discredit  of  the  Mint 
Bills  had  already — that  is,  in  1710 — caused  the  failure  of  Samuel 
Bernard,  at  that  time  the  richest  banker  in  Europe,  He  had  twenty 
millions  of  these  demands  upon  the  Spanish  government,  and  was 
forced  to  exchange  them  for  twenty  millions  of  unmarketable  stock. 
The  politicians  of  to-day  who  are  trifling  with  the  dangerous  subject 
of  money  may  glean  a  lesson  from  what  happened  on  this  occasion. 
The  failure  of  Bernard  brought  on  a  general  financial  panic  in  1714, 
and,  like  the  forcible  closure  of  the  Boston  colonial  mint  in  1694, 
the  panic  ended  with  the  revolt  of  the  colonies  and  their  loss  to  the 
mother  country. 

The  South  American  revolution  of  1732  was  not  merely  a  protest 
against  the  State  protection  of  the  Jesuits  and  their  system  of  In- 
dian tutelage;  it  was  a  general  expression  of  disappointment  and 
disgust  with  the  royal  government.  The  contraction  of  currency  and 
credit  rendered  the  taxes  not  only  doubly  oppressive,  it  deprived  the 
colonists  of  the  power  to  pay  them.  Indeed,  the  colonists  contended 
that  these  circumstances  and  measures  compelled  them  to  coerce  the 
Indians  and  thrust  them  into  the  mines;  that  it  induced  them  to  op- 
pose the  Jesuits  and  their  benevolent  system;  that  it  forced  them 
either  to  become  smugglers  under  cover  of  the  royal  flag,  or  else  to 
rid  themselves  of  trickery,  deceit,  favouritism,  bribery  and  conniv- 
ance, by  taking  the  field  as  home-rulers  (Communeros).  The  South 
American  revolution  of  1732  was  the  herald  of  the  North  American 
revolution  of  1775.  It  is  true  that  the  Communeros  were  put  down 
by  the  royal  forces,  nevertheless  they  gained  something.  By  a  royal 
decree  of  the  year  1736,  the  king's  share  ot  the  precious  metals'  pro- 
duce was  reduced  from  one-fifth  to  one-tenth  of  the  silver,  and  to 
one-twentieth  of  the  gold;  and  this  arrangement  continued  in  force 
until  the  revolution  of  iSioand  the  extinction  of  the  royal  authority. 

The  Spanish  mint  laws  were  altered  so  frequently,  that  an  absence 
of  alterations  for  so  long  a  period  as  that  from  1736  to  1772  seems 
remarkable,  yet  the  writer  can  find  no  data  for  this  period  except  the 
following  changes  in  the  ratio,  which  are  here  shown  in  connection 
with  those  which  preceded  and  followed  that  period,  viz.  :  1650,  15 
for  i;  1675,  16;  1760,  i4i<;  1765,  14^^;  1772,  16;  i775,i5/^-  By  the 
mint  law  of  1772,  which  Dr.  Kelly  says  was  applicable  to  all  the 
provinces  in  Spanish  America,  there  were  ordered  to  be  coined  from 
a  mark  of  gold  0.89583^3  fine,  8)4  doblons,  andfrom  a  mark  of  silver 


I.A     PLATA,    l)R    liUKNOS    AYRES.  235 

0.S95S3I3  fine,  8^2  pesos,  or  hard  dollars;  the  halves  and  quarters 
to  be  of  proportionate  weight.  The  doblon  therefore  contained 
374.2  grains  of  fine  gold,  ami  the  peso  374.2  grains  of  fine  silver.  As 
there  were  16  pesos  to  the  doblon,  the  ratio  was  16  for  i.  All 
these  coins  were  full  legal-tender,  and  were  open  to  illimitable  pri- 
vate coinage  in  the  mint  after  paying  the  tenth  on  silver,  the  twentieth 
on  gold,  and  the  mint  charges.  On  silver  the  royal  dues  and  mint 
charges  were  each  one  real  per  mark  weight.  Tlure  was  also  a  "  small 
change"  currency,  of  limited  tender,  consisting  of  pesetas  and  half- 
pesetas,  o.8i2j^  fine,  the  former  containing  83^  grains  of  such  de- 
based silver,  and  the  latter  one-half  that  quantity.  The  half-peseta 
was  called  the  Mexican  or  provincial  real.  These  two  highly  over- 
valued coins  were  designed  to  circulate  as  cjuarters  and  eigliths  of  the 
peso  or  duro,  and  this  design  succeeded  so  long  as  no  full- weighted 
quarters  and  eighths,  and  so  long  as  no  counterfeits,  were  struck. 
The  appearance  of  the  latter  compelled  the  Crown  to  issue  full- 
weighted  quarters  and  eigliths;  whereupon  the  pesetas  aiul  half- 
pesetas  dropped  in  value  to  fifths  and  tenths  of  the  dollar  respectively. 
These  over-valued  pesetas  were  first  issued  in  1721."  Here  is  an  in- 
stance where  bad  money  did  not  drive  out  the  good,  but  where  the 
emissions  of  the  latter  compelled  the  former  to  take  a  lower  value. 
In  fact,  the  so-called  '*  Gresham's  law"  on  this  subject  is  not  one  of 
money  at  all,  but  of  commodities,  and  it  only  relates  to  money  when 
it  has  been  prostituted  to  private  coinage  and  degraded  to  the  rank 
of  a  commodity. 

In  1775  the  mint  ratio  of  Spain  was  changed  from  16  to  15^^  fori, 
by  coining  full  legal-tender  pesetas  of  72.1  grains  fine."  As  the 
French  ratio  at  the  time  was  14)^,  the  conflict  between  these  ratios 
resulted  in  a  mean  ratio  in  the  Paris  bullion  market  of  15.08  for  i, 
a  fact  which  induced  the  French  government  in  1 785  to  recoin  its  gold 
at  the  Spanish  valuation  of  1775,"  though  meanwhile,  that  is  to  say 
in  1779,  the  Spanish  mint  had  returned  to  the  ratio  of  16  for  i.  These 
ratios,  15 '^  in  France  and  16  in  Spain,  continued  until  1873  in  France 
and  1864  in  Spain. 

Such  was  the  money  of  La  Plata  when  the  revolution  of  18 10-17 
occurred.  When  the  smoke  of  this  conflict  cleared  off,  and  the  royal 
forces  were  driven  out  of  the  colony,  the  currency  consisted  chiefly 
of  the  issues  of  the  Bank  of  Buenos  Ayres,  which,  being  kept  within 
prudent  limits,  circulated  not  only  at  "  par  in  gold,"  but  in  fact  were 
worth  more  than  gold  coins  of  the  same  denominations. 

'»  Kelly,  ii.  p.  i63.  «•  Ibid.  "  Calonnc's   Report. 


236  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Such  is  the  metallic  history  of  La  Plata,  or  Argentina,  once  re- 
garded as  the  silver  cownX-vy ^  par  excellence,  of  the  world.  It  has  added 
more  than  a  thousand  million  pesos  to  the  general  stock  of  gold  and 
silver;  it  has  scarcely  one  of  those  pesos  left.  Its  currency  consists 
of  depreciated  paper  notes,  and  its  mines  yield  so  trifling  a  quantity 
of  the  precious  metals,  less  than  half  a  million  dollars  per  annum,  as 
not  to  be  worth  further  notice.  The  people  of  Argentina  possess  a 
vast  domain,  much  of  which  is  fertile  and  full  of  promise;  their  climate 
is  salubrious  and  inviting;  they  belong  to  a  race  that  has  many  glori- 
ous memories  to  dwell  upon;  they  are  not  devoid  of  energy  and  am- 
bition :  but  if  they  would  win  for  themselves  from  other  people  a  just 
appreciation  of  these  advantages,  they  must  begin  by  casting  aside 
the  financial  delusions  which  are  made  to  rest  upon  the  precious 
metals,  and  rear  their  state  anew  upon  the  solid  foundations  of  in- 
dustry, probity,  and  truth. 

An  English  critic  in  a  late  able  and  impartial  review  of  the  first 
edition  of  this  work  questioned  the  propriety  of  devoting  so  much 
space  to  the  dreadful  details  of  the  Spanish  Conquest  of  America. 
These  details  were  not  recounted  without  a  purpose  which  was 
openly  expressed  in  the  work  itself. 

It  has  been  a  received  axiom  of  political  economy  which  does  not 
lack  support  even  in  the  practical  administration  of  government  ^^ 
that  the  value  of  the  precious  metals  is  derived  from  the  cost  of  their 
production.  America  is  the  only  country,  the  story  of  whose  con- 
quest comes  to  us  in  such  a  form  that  the  motives  of  the  conquerors, 
the  means  they  employed,  and  the  results  they  accomplished  are  all 
to  be  clearly  perceived.  This  story  proves  that  the  value  of  the  pre- 
cious metals  is  not  at  all  connected  with  the  cost  of  their  production. 

Whether  the  acquisition  of  the  precious  metals  formed,  as  has  been 
supposed,  the  chiefest  of  the  motives  which  actuated  the  Spaniards, 
or  not,  is  immaterial.  It  certainly  formed  the  chiefest,  perhaps  it 
may  be  said  the  only,  result;  for  besides  despoiling  Aboriginal 
America  of  her  gold  and  silver,  Spain  accomplished  nothing  in  the 
new  world,  except  extermination  and  destruction.  She  swept  away 
half  as  many  human  lives  as  all  Europe  contained  at  the  period  of 
the  Discovery.  She  destroyed  every  memorial  of  the  Aztec  and  Peru- 
vian civilizations.  She  disfigured  the  entire  face  of  Central  and  South 
America.  And  she  planted  nothing  in  the  place  of  what  she  destroyed 
save  a  race  laden  with  disadvantages  and  a  few  mission  churches 
crumbling  to  decay. 

''■''■  This  doctrine  is  asserted  in  President  Hayes'  veto  of  February  28,  1S78. 


LA     i'l.AlA,    OR    HKUNOS    AYKKS.  237 

The  spdil  wliich  slie  obtained  amounted  altogetlier  to  some  seven 
thousand  millions  of  dollars.  Now  what  did  it  cost  the  conqiierers  ? 
Practically  nothing.  All  the  expeditions  which  they  fitted  out,  all 
the  lives  (of  Spaniards)  that  were  lost  in  prosecuting  them;  all  the 
maravedis  which  these  expeditions  and  the  subsequent  supplies  to 
the  colonists  ever  cost,  let  the  lives  be  reckoned  at  never  so  high  a 
value,  and  they  were  for  the  most  part,  the  lives  of  a  class  of  men 
whom  Spain  was  only  too  glad  to  be  rid  of,  amount  to  nothing  com- 
pared with  the  stupendous  sum  expressed  by  seven  thousand  millions 
of  dollars. 

We  repeat,  the  metallic  spoil  of  America  cost  Spain,  cost  Europe, 
cost  the  civilized  world  practically  nothing.  Neither  did  the  spoil 
of  barbarian  Europe  cost  anything  to  the  Romans,  nor  that  of  India 
to  the  Macedonians,  nor  that  of  Asia  Minor  to  the  still  more  ancient 
Persians.  If  the  economical  axiom  that  value  is  due  to  cost  of  pro- 
duction be  correct,  how  came  the  precious  metals  which  these  nations, 
acquired  by  conquest  to  possess  any  value  ?  If  they  cost  nothing,  why 
were  they  worth  anything?  Simply  because  their  value  is  //<;/dueto- 
the  cost  of  production,  but  to  their  usefulness  and  their  quantity;  to 
the  relation  of  supply  to  demand. 

This  relation  is  wholly  irrespective  of  cost  of  production,  and  if 
the  view  which  the  present  work  affords  of  the  conquest  of  America 
by  the  Spaniards  has  served,  though  ever  so  inadeciuately,  to  pre- 
pare the  reader  for  the  reception  of  this  important  principle,  the  au- 
thor will  have  reason  to  believe  that  he  has  not  treated  the  subject 
in  vain. 

"  While  that  portion  of  the  precious  metals  (about  one-half  of  the  existing  stock), 
which  was  obtained  throujjh  con()uest  and  slavery,  practically  cost  nothingj  the  por- 
tion obtained  through  free  labour  has  cost  more  than  it  is  worth  :  a  fact  long  familiar 
to  mining  men  and  now  admitted  by  numerous  publicists.  Such  is  the  penalty  which 
nations  must  pay  for  indulgence  in  violence  and  crime  :  their  fruits  lower  the  value  of 
the  products  of  free  labour.  Not  until  the  precious  metals  have  entirely  ceased  to  be 
acquired  through  conquest  and  slavery  can  free  mining  labour  hope  to  obtain  an 
equitable  reward  in  the  value  of  its  product.  This  is  one  of  the  "  harmonies  of 
political  economy"  which  Malthas  suspected  and  iiastiat  overlooked. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


BRAZIL. 


Gold  discovered  in  1573 — Plunder  and  slavery  of  the  natives — Negro  slaves — Inter- 
ruption to  mining  caused  by  wars — Slave  hunting  and  the  importing  of  negros  resumed 
in  1670 — Description  of  the  mines — Dearness  of  provisions — Bullion  money — Tragedy 
of  Lonira — The  Paulistas — Chronology  of  the  mines — Exactions  of  the  Crown — Pop- 
ulation of  Brazil — Individual  product  of  the  mining  slaves — Total  product  of  Brazil — 
Compared  with  California  and  Australia — The  Quinto — Coinage — Alterations  of  the 
coins  of  Portugal  and  Brazil. 

BRAZIL  was  discovered  by  Vincente  Yanez  Pinzon,  a  Spanish 
captain  and  companion  of  Columbus,  in  January,  1500.  It 
was  rediscovered,  and  more  completely  explored  in  the  following 
April  by  Pedro  Alvarez  de  Cabral,  a  Portuguese  navigator,  and  by 
Americo  Vespucci  in  1503.  The  Bull,  issued  by  Pope  Alexander  VI., 
dated  May  3rd,  1493,  reads:  "  Decretum  et  Indultum  Alexandri 
Sexti  super  expeditione  in  Barbaros  noviorbis,  quos  Indos  vocant," 

■  etc.      It  gave  to  Portugal  all  countries  tvest  and  south  of  a  meridian 

■  drawn  from  pole  to  pole  100  leagues  west  of  the  Azores;  but  in  1494 
this  blunder  was  rectified,  and  the  line  placed  270  leagues  farther 
west  of  the  Azores  by  an  arrangement  between  the  two  powers. 
(Dwinell's  Colonial  Hist,  of  California,  pp.  8,  9.)  Notwithstanding 
the  equivocal  language  of  the  Papal  bull,  Spain  neglected  to  urge 
her  claims  to  Brazil,  and  Portugal  retained  a  nominal  possession  of 
the  country.  By  the  explorers  of  that  period,  whose  sole  object, 
under  whatever  specious  disguise,  was  the  acquisition  of  the  precious 
metals,  Brazil  was  regarded  as  of  no  value,  until  1549,  when,  it  being 
found  that  the  natives  possessed  gold  ornaments,  the  presence  of  gold 
in  the  beds  of  the  rivers  was  suspected,  and  the  country  was  regarded 
with  more  interest  at  the  Portuguese  Court.  In  the  year  1555, 
Villegagnon,  a  knight  of  Malta,  applied  to  Admiral  Coligny  for  leave 
to  invite  the  Huguenots  of  France  to  emigrate  to  Brazil.  This  per- 
mission Coligny  obtained  from  King  Henry  II.  The  Huguenots,  who 
were  then  bitterly  persecuted,  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity 


HKAZIL.  J  39 

to  send  a  colony  to  Brazil;  the  movement  amounting  in  two  years  to 
some  10,000  persons.  These  colonists  founded  the  city  of  Rio  de 
Janeiro.  The  hardships  of  their  new  life,  aggravated  by  the  deceit 
and  tyranny  of  Villegagnon,  whose  solicitude  for  religion  was  a  sham, 
and  whose  sole  object  was  to  plunder  the  natives  and  the  colony  for 
his  own  ends,  drove  the  Huguenots  back  to  France.  Four  years  later 
the  Portuguese  took  possession  of  the  settlement,  and  established 
their  flag  along  the  entire  coast.  It  was  following  this  period,  and  in 
the  year  1573,  that  gold  placers  were  discovered  by  Sebastian  Fer- 
nandes  Tourinho,  in  Minhas  Geraes.  The  discoveries  at  Ouro  Preto 
occurred  1 595-1605.  Then  followed  the  troubles  with  the  Paulistas 
and  the  Jesuit  missions  of  Paraguay. 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  and  early  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth centuries,  that  is  to  say,  during  the  period  1580-1640  when 
Portugal  and  its  possessions  fell  to  Spain,  the  English,  then  at  war 
with  Spain  and  Portugal,  attacked  and  plundered  the  settlements  on 
the  Brazilian  coast,  their  prime  object  being  the  acquisition  of  the 
precious  metals.  The  Netherlands,  also  at  war  with  Spain,  which 
at  that  time  included  Portugal,  and  animated  by  a  similar  motive, 
attacked  and  captured  San  Salvador  in  1624,  obtaining  a  large  booty. 
In  1630,  and  from  1633  to  1636,  they  sacked  nearly  all  the  Portu- 
guese settlements  on  the  coast  of  Brazil,  and  established  Dutch  col- 
onies in  their  places.  During  an  interval,  which  lasted  nearly  a  cen- 
tury, but  few  discoveries  of  gold  mines  were  made.  In  1654,  the 
Portuguese  again  obtained  possession  of  Brazil,  and  except  when  in 
17 1 1,  DuGuay-Trouin,  a  French  corsair,  took  Rio,  and  ransomed  it 
for  70,000  crusadoes,  they  remained  masters  of  the  country  until  it 
achieved  its  independence  in  1822. 

Upon  the  first  settlement  by  Europeans,  the  natives  were  plun- 
dered of  the  few  gold  ornaments  or  trinkets  which  they  possessed,  and 
commanded  under  pain  of  death  to  seek  for  more.  The  boundless 
extent  of  the  country,  and  the  slender  resources  of  the  Europeans, 
effectually  prevented  the  execution  of  their  threats,  and  preserved 
the  natives  from  that  extermination  which  befel  them  in  the  West 
India  Islands,  in  the  comparatively  narrow  empires  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  and  upon  the  Isthmus.  The  Portuguese  rode  along  the  coasts 
and  rivers  terrifying  the  inhabitants  witli  their  horses,  their  blood- 
hounds, their  arquebuses,  and  their  coats  of  mail.  They  appropriated 
the  women,  and  reduced  the  men  to  mine  slavery.  But  their  depre- 
dations soon  wore  themselves  out,  for  the  natives  retreated  to  the 
interior,  and  left   them   to  their  own  resources  and  evil   thoughts. 


240  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Among  the  productions  of  the  colony  which  were  sent  to  Portugal 
was  a  small  amount  of  placer  gold,  obtained  in  insignificant  quantities 
from  the  sands  of  the  streams  near  the  banks  of  which  the  settle- 
ments had  been  made. 

Some  of  the  worst  of  the  many  bad  characters  v/ho  composed  the 
settlements,  tired  of  the  restraints  of  social  life,  or  else  compelled  by 
their  companions  to  retire  from  the  colony,  sought  a  refuge  in  the 
interior,  where  they  followed  a  predatory  life,  occasionally  appearing 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  settlements  to  obtain  supplies  in  return 
for  the  little  gold  they  managed  to  pick  up  or  extort  from  the  natives. 
The  unusually  large  quantity  of  gold  from  these  rovers  which  found 
its  way  into  the  settlements  about  the  year  1670  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  colonial  authorities;  but  the  gold-finders  refused  to  im- 
part any  information  upon  the  subject  unless  they  were  accorded  a 
pardon  from  the  king  for  all  offences  and  full  protection  for  the  future. 

This  being  obtained  they  stated  that  they  had  discovered  placers 
at  Jaragua,  in  the  province  of  San  Paulo,  including  nuggets  of  con- 
siderable size.  This  was  a  blind,  because  Jaragua  had  been  discovered 
a  century  previously.  Some  authorities  place  the  date  of  the  dis- 
covery of  gold  by  the  outlaws  of  Brazil  so  late  as  1694,  in  which  year 
it  is  stated  that  there  arrived  at  Lisbon  about  a  ton  and  a-half  (over 
$700,000)  of  gold  obtained  by  "a  body  of  outlaws  in  a  distant  part 
of  Brazil,  and  who,  to  get  a  market  for  it,  submitted  to  the  king's 
Fifth."    (Universal  Hist.  ,xix,2o.)    But  this  information  is  defective. 

These  discoveries  led  to  a  more  systematic  exploration  of  the  coun- 
try by  parties  from  the  settlements,  and  several  placers  were  laid 
open,  the  most  important  being  in  the  province  of  jNIinhas  Geraes 
(General  Mines).  This  province  was  formed  into  a  capitania  of  Brazil, 
and  in  1714,  it  was  districted  into  four  comarcos,  viz.:  S.  Joao  del 
Rey;  Sabara,  Villa  Rica,  and  Cerro  do  Rio.  It  was  not  until  after 
1693  that  the  product  became  so  important  as  to  make  itself  felt  in 
Europe.  From  this  time  until  after  the  middle  of  the  following  cen- 
tury new  placers  continued  to  be  discovered,  and  the  product  to  aug- 
ment. Afterwards  the  placers  fell  off,  and  during  the  present  cen- 
tury they  were  succeeded  by  the  exploration  of  a  few  quartz  mines, 
which  still  yield  a  small  amount  of  gold. 

No  sooner  had  the  placers  of  Brazil  become  productive  than  they 
attracted  a  rush  of  colonists  thither  from  Portugal.  The  natives  were 
now  hunted  down  with  more  system  and  success,  and  great  numbers 
of  them  were  reduced  to  slavery  in  the  mines,  where,  as  fast  as  they 
perished,  they  were  supplanted  by  negros  obtained  from  Africa. 


ItRAZlL.  241 

''  Nearly  all  the  revolutions  that  have  occurred  at  Para  arc  directly 
or  indirectly  traceable  to  the  sjiirit  of  revenge  with  which  the  bloody 
expeditions  of  the  early  slave-hunters  are  associated  in  the  minds  of 
the  natives  and  mixed  bloods  throughout  the  country."  Kidder's 
Travels  in  Brazil,  1844. 

The  physical  aspects  of  the  placer  country,  the  nature  of  the  de- 
posits, the  mode  of  working  them,  the  cost  of  production,  the  char- 
acter of  the  earlier  discoverers  and  miners,  the  usages  that  grew  up 
from  these  circumstances,  and  the  general  condition  of  society  in  the 
mining  regions  will  now  be  briefly  alluded  to.  The  country  was 
mountainous,  in  some  parts  sterile  and  dry,  in  others  clothed  with 
impenetrable  forests,  and  abounding  with  wild  animals  and  reptiles. 
The  placers  were  remote  from  the  settlements  and  difficult  of  access. 
Food  and  supplies  had  generally  to  be  brought  from  avast  distance, 
and  upon  the  shoulders  of  slaves.  For  example,  from  Rio  de  Janeiro 
to  Ouro  Preto — 200  miles — took  fifteen  days.  Between  the  mines  of 
Matto  Grosso  and  the  market  at  Para  was  1,000  miles  in  a  straight 
line:  2,500  miles  by  river  routes.  There  was  a  dry  and  rainy  season, 
for  which  latter  the  miners  had  always  to  wait;  so  that  mining  could 
only  be  prosecuted  during  a  portion  of  each  year. 

The  placers  consisted  of  the  gravel  banks  of  small  rivers  flowing 
from  lofty  mountains,  the  richest  beds  having  been  found  on  the 
flanks  of  the  Sierras  dos  Vertentes  and  the  Sierra  do  Salto  in  lat.  20 
to  21  south,  and  on  the  Rio  Verdi,  near  Campanha;  though  many 
were  found  in  other  localities.  One  kind  of  earth  washed  for  gold  is 
described  by  Mr.  Mawe  and  Dr.  Von  Spix  as  a  ferruginous  sand- 
stone conglomerate  called  "jacotinga."  Generally  speaking,  tlie  soil 
is  red,  and  ferruginous.  The  gold  lies  for  the  most  part  in  strata  of 
rounded  pebbles,  gravel  and  sand,  incumbent  on  solid  rock.  This 
the  miners  called  cascalhao.  The  primitive  mode  of  working  was 
with  gourds,  or  wooden  bowls:  subsequently,  and  where  water  of  a 
sufficiently  high  level  could  be  commanded,  the  ground  was  cut  in 
steps  about  twenty  or  thirty  feet  long,  two  or  three  feet  broad,  and 
one  foot  deep.  Upon  each  step  stood  six  or  eight  slaves,  who,  as  the 
water  was  allowed  to  flow  gently  from  above,  kept  the  auriferous 
earth  agitated  until  it  was  reduced  to  the  consistency  of  mud  and 
washed  below.  At  the  bottom  of  a  series  of  these  steps  was  cut  a 
trench  into  which  the  precipitation  flowed,  and  where  after  five  days' 
washing  it  was  sufficiently  concentrated.  It  was  then  removed  by 
hand  to  an  adjoining  stream,  and  there  subjected  to  the  bowl  pro- 
cess of  separation. 


242  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS 

When  the  placers  of  Goyaz  and  Matto  Grosso  were  first  opened, 
slaves  employed  by  the  gold-seekers  sometimes  obtained  for  their 
masters  three  and  even  four  ounces  of  gold  per  day;  and  although 
this  fertility  of  the  mines  was  not  continuous,  yet,  until  after  the 
middle  of  the  i8th  century,  if  not  profitable,  they  were  very  produc- 
tive. In  1846,  the  average  product  of  a  miner  scarcely  exceeded  15 
cents  a  day.  At  the  present  time  these  placers  can  only  be  worked 
profitably  by  the  hydraulic  process,  when  they  may  again  become 
productive  enough  to  engage  the  attention  of  investors. 

In  the  early  days  the  only  food  to  be  obtained  in  the  mountains 
was  a  few  birds,  deer  and  mangabas,  the  latter  a  wild  fruit.  There 
were  instances  when  the  price  of  corn  at  the  mines  was  more  than  a 
pound  weight  of  gold  ($240)  per  bushel.  In  one  instance,  the  same 
price  was  paid  for  a  pound  of  salt!  A  drove  of  cattle  which  some 
adventurer  had  managed  to  convey  to  the  mines  (of  Goyaz  and 
Matto  Grosso)  sold,  flesh  and  bone  together,  for  an  ounce  and  a-half 
of  gold  (about  $30)  per  pound.  When  they  failed  to  capture  slaves 
it  required  all  the  gold  which  the  miners  could  obtain  to  keep  them 
in  food,  and  even  this  was  insufficient,  for  great  numbers  of  them 
died  from  leprosy  and  starvation.      Macgregor  iv,  p.  210. 

At  the  outset  the  miners  were  the  worst  of  characters:  outlaws, 
renegados  and  traitors.  As  the  settlements  grew  up  in  the  mining^ 
regions  the  disposition  of  the  new  comers  greatly  improved  that 
of  the  mass.  But  the  mining  communities  were  always  noted  for 
their  cruel  treatment  of  the  natives  (whom  they  captured  only  to 
work  to  death),  their  proneness  to  violence,  their  quickness  to  use 
the  knife  on  all  occasions,  their  passion  for  gambling  and  their  licen- 
tiousness. So  late  as  1846  the  slaves  in  the  province  of  Pernam- 
buco  were  treated  so  cruelly  that,  according  to  Mr.  A.  de  Mornay, 
1)hey  cultivated  the  fatal  vice  of  eating  earth  in  order  to  "put  an  end 
to  their  already  worn-out  existences."  Macgregor,  iv,  p.  181.  This, 
however,  was  not  the  reason  for  eating  earth,  because  Humbolt  as- 
sures us  that  some  of  the  Amazonian  Indians,  in  their  wild  state,  eat 
small  portions  of  a  certain  kind  of  clay,  from  choice.  The  Pernam- 
buco  slaves  eat  earth  because  they  were  insufficiently  fed  by  their 
masters. 

These  characteristics  of  the  Portuguese  miners  had  scarcely  be- 
come softened  by  time,  the  repression  exercised  by  the  military  forces 
of  the  colonial  government,  and  the  influence  of  the  priests,  when 
the  gold  placers  lost  their  importance,  and  Brazil  fell  into  decay. 
Then  followed  the  revolution  and  Independence.    In  1844  the  arrival 


ItKAZlL.  243 

of  three  French  mechanics,  a  carpenter,  a  joiner,  and  a  blacksmith, 
in  the  province  of  Goyaz,  was  deemed  so  important  an  event  as  to 
be  stated  in  the  message  of  the  President  to  the  provincial  assembly. 
When  the  writer  worked  in  these  placers  forty  years  later  the  people 
crowded  about  him  to  see  the  operation  of  a  chisel,  a  plane,  and  a  saw; 
the  only  tool  previously  used  in  the  vicinity  being  a  hand-adze. 

The  currency  of  the  country  at  first  was  gold-dust,  afterwards  bars 
of  uncoined  gold;  later  still,  when  the  colonial  mints  became  capable 
of  supplying  the  country  with  coin,  the  use  of  dust  and  bullion  was 
prohibited;  for  the  Crown  did  not  omit  to  extort  a  seigniorage  from 
the  coin.  Says  Kelly:  The  gold  dust  deposited  in  the  beds  of  the 
various  streams  is  a  common  right,  but  when  found,  is  by  law  bound 
to  be  carried  to  the  royal  smelting-houses  (Cazas  de  Fundivao)  es- 
tablished in  various  districts,  where,  one-fifth  of  it  being  retained  (in 
ndtiira)  for  the  Royal  Quinto,  a  bar  is  made  of  the  remainder,  which 
is  weighed,  assayed,  numbered,  stamped,  and  returned  to  the  owner 
accompanied  by  a  certificate,  signetl  by  the  proper  officers,  showing 
the  value  in  money  of  such  bar,  calculated  at  1,500  Reis  per  octave 
of  eleven-twelfths  (.9167)  fine.  These  bars  serve  as  a  circulating 
medium,  but  it  is  strictly  prohibited  to  export  them.  They  are  ul- 
timately carried  to  the  Royal  Mint  at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  where  they  are 
received  at  1,500  Reis  per  octave,  and  paid  for  in  gold  coin  valued 
at  1,600  Reis  per  octave;  the  King  thus  exacting  a  seignorage  of  6^ 
per  cent.,  in  addition  to  the  Quinto  (or  20  per  cent.)  previously  taken 
on  the  gold  dust.  Dr.  Southey  states  that  gold  was  first  stamped  by 
the  authorities  of  Brazil  in  1701;  but  in  a  work  entitled  '*  The  Em- 
pire of  Brazil,"  Rio  de  Janeir(\  1S77,  pp.  402-3,  there  are  evidences 
that  the  King's  Fifth  was  paid  and  coinage  commenced  so  early  as 
1 694,  Upon  the  decline  of  the  placers  gold  gave  place  to  silver  coins 
smuggled  from  La  Plata.  Here  private  money  ceased  and  govern- 
ment money  began,  viz. :  base  silver  coins  and  coppers.  These  were 
partly  replaced  in  1797  by  government  paper  notes,  and  at  a  later 
date  by  a  system  consisting  altogether  of  government  and  bank  ]>aper. 
This  last  system  exists  to  the  present  day,  and  it  has  efficiently  served 
all  the  purposes  of  money  for  the  progressive  empire  which  has  grown 
up  from  such  rude  beginnings. 

The  system  of  hunting  down  the  natives,  enslaving  them  as  en- 
comienderos  and  working  them  to  death  in  the  mines,  did  not  operate 
so  smoothly  in  Brazil  as  it  did  in  Mexico  and  Peru,  because  in  the 
first-named  country  there  were  plenty  of  backwoods  into  which  the 
Indians  could  retreat  and  into  which  many  of  the  captives  managed 


244  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

to  retreat  when  they  found  that  captivity  meant  death.  The  escape 
of  their  victims  and  the  difificulty  of  hunting  for  others  compelled  the 
Portuguese  to  send  to  Africa  for  negro  slaves,  who,  originally,  cost 
about  $5  each  in  Africa  and  were  worth  about  $25  in  Brazil.  Toward 
the  end  of  the  1 7th  century,  before  the  great  placers  of  Minhas  Geraes 
were  systematically  opened,  the  price  of  negros  on  the  coast  of  Africa 
was  $15,  and  in  Rio  Janeiro  about  $65  to  $80.  After  the  placers  be- 
came productive,  that  is  to  say,  in  1705,  negros  were  worth  $75  in 
Africa  and  $250  in  Rio.  The  christianised  Indians  kidnapped  from 
the  Paraguay  missions  by  the  San  Paulo  bandits,  were  sold  to  the 
mines  at  prices  varying  from  $50  to  $150  each.  It  is  grievous  to  be 
obliged  to  record  that  the  benevolent  example  of  the  Jesuits  was  not 
followed  by  all  the  clergy.  On  the  contrary,  many  took  part  in  en- 
trapping and  enslaving  the  natives,  some  of  whom  they  deliberately 
trained  as  decoys  to  entrap  others.  The  following  affecting  narra- 
tive appears  in  Bayard  Taylor's  work: 

"Three  years  before  the  arrival  of  the  travellers  (Humboldt  and 
Bonpland)  the  Missionary  of  San  Fernando  led  his  converted  In- 
dians to  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Guaviare,  on  one  of  these  hostile  in- 
cursions. They  found  in  an  Indian  hut  a  Guahiba  woman  with  her 
three  children,  two  of  whom  were  still  infants,  occupied  in  preparing 
the  flour  of  cassava.  Resistance  was  impossible  ;  the  father  was  gone 
to  fish,  and  the  mother  tried  in  vain  to  flee  with  her  children.  Scarce- 
ly had  she  reached  the  savannah  when  she  was  seized  by  the  In- 
dians of  the  mission.  The  mother  and  her  children  were  bound,  and 
dragged  to  the  bank  of  the  river.  The  monk,  seated  in  his  boat, 
waited  the  issue  of  an  expedition  of  which  he  shared  not  the  danger. 
Had  the  mother  made  too  violent  a  resistance  the  Indians  would  have 
killed  her,  for  everything  was  permitted  for  the  sake  of  the  conquest 
of  souls,  and  it  was  particularly  desirable  to  capture  children,  who 
might  be  treated  in  the  missions  as  slaves  of  the  Christians.  The 
prisoners  were  carried  to  San  Fernando,  in  the  hope  that  the  mother 
would  be  unable  to  find  her  way  back  to  her  home  by  land.  Separ- 
ated from  her  other  children,  who  had  accompanied  their  father  on 
the  day  on  which  she  had  been  carried  off,  the  unhappy  woman  showed 
signs  of  the  deepest  despair.  She  attempted  to  take  back  to  her 
home  the  children  who  had  been  seized  by  the  Missionary;  and  she 
fled  with  them  repeatedly  from  the  village  of  San  Fernando.  But  the 
Indians  never  failed  to  recapture  her;  and  the  Missionary,  after 
having  caused  her  to  be  mercilessly  beaten,  took  the  cruel  resolution 
of  separating  the  mother  from  the  two  children  who  had  been  carried 


iikAZii..  245 

off  with  her.  She  was  conveyed  alone  to  the  missions  of  the  Rio 
Negro,  going  up  the  Atabapo.  Slightly  bound,  she  was  seated  at  the 
bow  of  the  boat,  ignorant  of  the  fate  that  awaited  her;  but  she  judged 
by  the  direction  of  the  sun,  that  she  was  removing  farther  and  farther 
from  her  hut  and  her  native  country.  She  succeeded  in  breaking 
her  bonds,  threw  herself  into  the  water,  and  swam  to  the  left  bank  of 
the  Atabapo.  Tlie  current  carried  her  to  a  shelf  of  rock,  which  bears 
her  name  to  this  day — The  Mother's  Rock.  She  landed  and  took 
shelter  in  the  woods,  but  the  President  of  the  Missions  ordered  the 
Indians  to  row  to  the  shore,  and  follow  the  traces  of  the  Guahiba. 
In  the  evening  she  was  brought  back.  Stretched  upon  the  rock,  a 
cruel  punishment  was  inflicted  upon  her  with  straps  of  manati 
leather,  which  serve  for  whips  in  that  country,  and  with  which  the 
Alcaldes  were  always  furnished.  The  unhappy  woman,  her  hands 
tied  behind  her  back,  was  then  dragged  to  tlie  mission  of  Javita. 

She  was  there  thrown  into  one  of  the  caravanserais.  It  was  the 
rainy  season,  and  the  night  was  profoundly  dark.  Forests,  till  then 
believed  to  be  impenetrable,  separated  the  mission  of  Javita  from  that 
of  San  Fernando,  wliich  was  twenty-five  leagues  tlistant  in  a  straight 
line.  No  other  route  was  known  than  that  by  the  rivers;  no  man 
ever  attempted  to  go  by  land  from  one  village  to  another.  But  such 
difficulties  could  not  deter  a  mother  separated  from  her  children. 
The  Guahiba  was  carelessly  guarded  in  the  caravansary.  Her  arms 
being  wounded,  the  Indians  of  Javita  had  loosened  her  bonds,  un- 
known to  the  Missionar}'  and  the  Alcalde.  Having  succeeded  by  the 
help  of  her  teeth  in  breaking  them  entirely, she  disappeared  during  the 
night;  and  at  the  fourth  sunrise  was  seen  at  the  mission  of  San  Fer- 
nando, hovering  around  the  hut  where  her  children  were  confined. 
'What  that  woman  performed,'  added  the  Missionary,  who  gave  the 
travellers  this  sad  narrative,  'the  most  robust  Indian  would  not  have 
ventured  to  undertake.'  She  traversed  the  woods  when  the  sky  was 
constantly  covered  with  clouds,  and  the  sun  during  whole  days  ap- 
peared but  for  a  few  minutes.  Did  the  course  of  the  waters  direct  her 
way?  The  inundations  of  the  rivers  forced  her  to  go  far  from  the 
banks  of  the  main  stream,  through  the  midst  of  woods  where  the 
movement  of  the  water  was  almost  imperceptible.  How  often  must 
she  have  stopped  by  the  thorny  lianas  tiiat  formed  a  network  around 
the  trunks  they  entwined !  How  often  must  she  have  swum  across 
the  rivulets  that  ran  into  the  Atabapo!  This  unfortunate  woman  was 
asked  how  she  had  sustained  herself  during  the  four  days.  She  said 
that,  e.xhausted  with  fatigue,  she  could  find  no  other  nourishment  than 


246  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

black  ants.  The  travellers  pressed  the  Missionary  to  tell  them 
whether  the  Guahiba  had  peacefully  enjoyed  the  happiness  of  remain- 
ing with  her  children;  and  if  any  repentance  had  followed  this  excess 
of  cruelty.  He  would  not  satisfy  their  curiosity;  but  at  their  return 
from  the  Rio  Negro  they  learned  that  the  Indian  mother  was  again 
separated  from  her  children,  and  sent  to  one  of  the  missions  of  the 
Upper  Orinoco.     She  there  died,  refusing  all  kinds  of  nourishment." 

Something  of  this  melancholy  story  Humboldt  himself  narrated  in 
the  hearing  of  the  writer.      The  name  of  the  mother  was  Lonira, 

San  Paulo  was  built  about  the  year  1570  by  the  malefactors  whom 
Portugal  had  cast  upon  the  coasts  of  the  New  World.  No  sooner  did 
these  villains  perceive  that  it  was  intended  to  subject  them  to  some 
sort  of  surveillance  than  they  fled  from  the  coasts  and  buried 
themselves  in  places  so  remote  or  inaccessible  that  the  power  of  the 
government  could  no  longer  reach  them.  Here  they  were  recruited 
by  other  bandits  and  by  the  progeny  of  the  Indian  women  whom 
they  captured  and  enslaved,  until  from  these  vile  beginnings  a  petty 
state  arose  whose  laws  were  both  piratical  and  sanguinary.  These 
were  primarily  that:  No  person  should  be  admitted  into  the  com- 
munity who  was  not  prepared  to  remain  with  it  and  undergo  a  trial 
of  his  fidelity,  courage  and  contempt  of  all  obligations  save  those 
of  supporting  the  band  to  the  death;  no  member  of  the  band  should 
ever  leave  it;  no  travellers  to  be  tolerated;  all  rejected  applicants 
and  all  attempted  deserters  to  be  put  to  death.  "They  (the  Paulistas) 
overran  the  inland  parts  of  the  Brazils  from  one  extremity  to  the 
other.  All  the  Indians  who  resisted  them  were  put  to  death  ;  fetters 
were  the  portion  of  cowards;  the  inhabitants  (natives)  hid  themselves 
in  the  mountains  to  avoid  slavery  or  death.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  enumerate  the  devastations,  cruelties, and  enormities  of  which  these 
atrocious  men  were  guilty."  Raynal,  iv,  466.  These  were  the  men 
who  first  discovered  gold  in  Brazil,  who  doomed  its  native  popula- 
tion to  destruction  and  supplied  their  places  with  negro  slaves,  in 
order  that  this  gold  might  be  dug  out  and  carried  to  Europe 

An  attempt  will  now  be  made  to  follow  the  course  of  mining  dis- 
covery in  Brazil. 

Chronology  of  Gold  Alining  in  Brazil. 

1549.    The  natives  are  observed  to  possess  gold  ornaments. 

1573.  Minhas  Geraes.  Sebastian  Fernandes  Tourinho  discovers 
gold  placers  and  emeralds  in  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Doce.  Almanach 
Sul  Aliniero,  Campanha,  1874,  p.  19. 

1577.    Minhas.     Placers  of  Jaragua  discovered.     Raynal,  iv,  469. 


UKA/IL.  247 

1588.    Bahia.  Placers  of  Jacobino  011  the  river  Das  Vclhas.  Raynal. 

1594  French  expedition  up  tlie  Amazon  found  no  <j;old. 

1595  to  1605.  Minhas.  Gold  discovered  at  Uuro  I'reto.  When  the 
news  reached  San  Paulo  a  rush  occurred  of  Mameluccos,  who  sought 
to  dispossess  the  original  discoverers  by  force.  This  gave  rise  to  nu- 
merous deeds  of  blood,  the  Portuguese  being  the  actors  and  the  en- 
slaved natives  the  bystanders.  A  fresh  stream  of  gold-hunters  soon 
afterwards  ajipeared  from  Portugal, who  dispossessed  both  parties  and 
approjiriaied  the  richest  washings  for  themselves  and  their  slaves. 
Antonio  Vieyra,  and  Dr.  Guimaraes.  When  Pombal  entered  office 
in  1750  the  population  of  Portugal  had  been  reduced  to  two  millions. 
"  Famishing  Portugal,"  in  Lippincott's,  1876. 

1625.  Goyaz.  E.xpedition  of  Fr.  Christovao  de  Lisboa  from  Para 
to  the  highlands  of  the  Tocatin  river,  which,  after  flowing  1,500 
miles,  empties  into  the  Amazon  near  its  mouth.      Castelnau,  loS. 

1640.     Goyaz.    Another  expedition  to  the  Tocatin  hills. 

1662.  Minhas.  Expedition  of  Fernando  Dias  Paes  Leme.  Aim. 
Min.  19. 

1669.  Goyaz.  Expedition  of  Gonzalo  Paes  and  Manoel  Brandon 
to  the  Rio  Araguaya,  an  affluent  of  the  Tocatin.     Castelnau,  108. 

1670.  Minhas.  Expedition  of  the  Paulistas  to  Jaragua,  carrying 
with  them  slaves  to  work  the  placers. 

1670.  Goyaz.  Expedition  of  Manoel  Correa  with  another  band  of 
Paulistas  and  slaves  to  work  the  placers.     Castelnau,  123. 

1672.  Goyaz.  Expedition  of  Pascoal  Paes  de  Aran  jo  with  a  band 
of  Paulistas  to  Piauhy  and  Para,  to  capture  Indian  slaves,  tributes, 
and  gold.     Castelnau,  108,  123. 

1693.  Minhas.  Antonio  Rodriguez  Arzanou  and  Carlos  Pedroso 
da  Silveira  with  50  men  raid  an  Indian  village,  which  the  Portuguese 
named  Cathay,  on  the  Rio  Doce,  and  from  which  they  got  three 
oitavas  of  gold,  "the  first  product  of  Minhas  Geraes,"  says  the 
Almanach  Sul  Miniero;  but  this  is  a  mistake,  because  Minhas  began 
to  be  productive  so  early  as  1670.  It  may  have  been  the  first  regis- 
tered prt)duct  of  Minhas. 

1694.  Minhas.  Expedition  of  Bartholomeo  Bueno.  He  presents 
12  oitavas  of  gold  to  the  governor  of  Rio.     Aim.  Min.,  20. 

1694.  Minhas.  Numerous  expeditions  of  the  Paulistas,  who  scour 
the  country  for  Indian  captives  and  carry  them  to  the  mines  of  Min- 
has, which  are  thus  rendered  very  productive.  Aim.  Min.  20.  New 
placers  were  discovered  almost  every  day,  so  that  to  this  period  is 
usually  ascribed  the  beginning  of  that  vast  production  of  gold  which 
in  the  course  of  half  a  century  exerted  so  remarkable  an  influence 
upon  the  social  condition  of  Europe  as  to  give  rise  to  demands  for 
the  abolition  of  the  feudal  svstem,  the  ecclesiastical  system  with 
which  it  was  connected,  and  the  colonial  system  which  had  grown 
out  of  them  and  had  now  outgrown  them. 

1694.  Goyaz.  The  Paulistas  capture  a  number  of  Indians  and  set 
them  to  work  in  the  mines  of  this  province. 

1699.     Minhas.     The  mines  of  Sahara,  Rio  das  Mortes,  Cashoeira, 


248  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Sta.  Lucia,  Pousse  Alto,  Carmo,  Campanha,  Paracutu,  Ouro  Preto, 
Rio  Doce,  Rio  Das  Velhas,  etc.,  are  worked  with  negro  slaves.  Ray- 
nal.  During  the  productive  period,  the  following  prices  ruled  at  the 
mines:  an  alqueire  of  milho,  40  octaves  of  gold  and  of  beans  80 
octaves.  Aim.  Min.  20.  The  alqueire  varied  from  half  a  bushel  to 
iX  bushels;  the  octave  of  gold  contained  55^  English  grains,  about 
$2.50.  Beans,  therefore,  cost  about  $200  a  bushel.  A  heavily  paved 
road  to  the  mines,  constructed  during  the  18th  century,  at  vast  ex- 
pense, is  now  in  ruins. 

1707.    Minhas.    Placers  of  Villa  Rica  discovered.    Southey,  111,56. 

1715.     Minhas.     Placers  of  Villa  do  Principe.     Mawe,  222. 

1 7 18.  Matto  Grosso.  New  placers  discovered.  Macgregor,  iv,i42. 
These  were  probably  at  Cuxipomirim,  on  a  river  of  the  same  name, 
one  league  from  Cuiaba,  or  Cuyaba,  in  the  center  of  the  province. 
Biblioteca  Nacional,  1877,  p.  269. 

.  1 72 1.  Matto  Grosso.  Placers  of  Cuyaba  and  Rozario  discovered 
by  Miguel  Subtil,  probably  the  same  as  those  mentioned  under  17 18. 
Rozario  yielded  400  arrobas  (about  $3,500,000)  in  one  month. 

1722.  Goyaz.  Expedition  of  B.  Bueno  discovers  gold  placers  on 
the  Rio  Vermelho. 

1726.  Goyaz.  Placers  of  San  Felix,  Meia  Ponta,  O  Fanado,  Mo- 
cambo  and  Natividade  discovered.  Town  of  Goyaz  founded.  In 
1830  there  were  232  abandoned  placers  in  this  province,  only  41 
working.  They  are  now  all  abandoned.  *  The  physical  devastation 
wrought  by  the  miners  is  frightful. 

1727.  Minhas.  Sebastiao  Leme  do  Prado,  with  a  band  of  Paul- 
istas,  discovers  gold  in  the  river  Bom  Successo,  at  a  place  afterwards 
called  Minas  Novas,  also  on  the  Rio  Capivary,  near  the  Arraial  da 
Chapada.  These  placers  were  extensively  mined,  and  300  arrobas 
(over  $2,500,000)  were  sent  to  Bahia  alone.  In  the  Lavrado  Batatal 
a  single  nugget  weighted  28  pounds.     Lock. 

1730.  San  Paulo.  Pompeo  says  that  the  gold  mines  of  this  prov- 
ince ])roduced,  from  the  period  of  their  discovery  to  the  beginning  of 
the  19th  century,  4,650  arrobas,  about  $40,000,000,  while  Scully  says 
they  only  produced  70  tons,  about  $35,000,000.  Lock,  219,  228. 
The  difference  in  this  instance  is  comparatively  small.  In  the  case 
of  the  other  provinces,  Scully's  estimates  are  far  too  small  to  entitle 
them  to  consideration.  It  would  probably  be  nearer  the  truth  to 
credit  Minhas  with  550,  Matto  Grosso  230,  Goyaz  150,  San  Paulo  40, 
and  the  other  provinces  with  30  million  dollars;  altogether  about 
1,000  millions. 

The  quartz  mines  of  Brazil  began  to  be  worked  after  the  placers 
showed  signs  of  exhaustion.  Among  the  most  productive  were  Morro 
Velho,  Maquine,  St.  John  del  Rey  (opened  about  1725),  Cata  Branca 
and  Gongo  Soco,  the  last  of  which,  according  to  Moraes,  yielded  in 
thirty-odd  years,  best  period  1825-35,  over  $6,500,000.  Hartt  says 
that  the  first  two  of  these  were  the  only  ones  that  were  profitable. 

1735.  Matto  Grosso.  Placers  of  St.  Vincent,  Chapada,  Araes, 
and  St.  Anne;  also  some  new  ones  near  Cuyaba.  Raynal,  iv,  470. 


BRAZIL.  :;49 

1736.  Goyaz.  An  improved  route  (paved  road)  opened  lo  lia- 
placers.  Macgreggor,  iv.  142.      This  road  has  now  gone  to  ruin. 

1738.  Matto  (irosso.  Placers  of  S.  Jose  de  Cocaes,  si.\  leagues 
from  Cuyabd,  discovered.     Hiblio.  Nac.  269. 

1 739-  Matto  Grosso.  Placers  of  Arinos,  ten  leagues  north  of 
Diamantino,  discovered.  1741,  Arraial  Velho,  one  and  a-half  leagues 
north  of  Diamantino;  and  between  1740  and  1750,  Brumado,  si.x 
leagues  southwest  of  Diamantino  and  Pari,  three  and  a-half  leagues 
south  of  Diamantico,  were  discovered.     Biblio.  Nac,  270-1. 

1805.  Matto  Grosso.  Placers  of  Diamantino  and  Ribieniode  Ouro, 
whose  sluiceways  were  filled  up  with  tailings  (entulhos),  opened  a 
second  time.  Biblio.  Nac.  271.  'I'luy  have  since  filled  up  again  and 
are  now  altogether  out  of  grade  and  aliandoned. 

1808.  Matto  Cirosso.  Placers  of  S.  Francisco,  nine  leagues  north- 
west of  Diamantino,  discovered.  Abandoned  four  years  later  in  con- 
sequence of  richer  discoveries  at  Araes. 

181 2.  Matto  Grosso.  Although  the  placers  of  Ara^s  were  dis- 
covered in  1735,  some  ^ew  and  richer  ground  was  opened  this  year, 
causing  the  abandonment  of  the  poorer  mines  in  the  vicinity,  an  evi- 
dence that  the  mines  generally  were  not  paying.  After  the  rich 
ground  was  worked  out,  the  unhealthiness  of  the  place  caused  it  to 
be  quickly  deserted.  Biblio.  Nac.  271.  Many  other  mines  in  Goyaz 
were  opened  at  tliis  period,  but  they  tailed  to  pay,  and  were  abandoned. 

1820.  Goyaz,  which  formerly  had  a  vast  population  of  Indian  en- 
comienderos  and  100,000  negro  slaves  in  the  mines,  now  has  but 
62,518  inhabitants,  including  12,000  Intlians.     Castelnau,  121. 

182 1.  In  this  year  there  were  deposited  at  the  mint  of  Rio  only 
39,286  oitavas  of  gold.  Castelnau,  121.  This  was  almost  the  last  of 
the  placer  mines. 

The  first  caza  de  fundiyaon,  or  smelting-house,  where  the  gold  dust 
was  melted,  refined,  and  cast  into  bars,  appears  to  have  been  estab- 
lished in  1694.  After  the  royal  Quinto  was  deducted,  these  bars 
were  stamped  with  the  royal  device,  the  date  of  their  fabrication 
and  their  weight,  fineness  and  mint-value,  in  Portuguese  gold  coins. 
Besides  the  Quinto  on  the  production,  the  Crown  levied  a  seign- 
iorage of  6-3  per  cent.,  on  the  coinage  of  gold.  To  evade  as  much 
as  possible  the  payment  of  so  heavy  an  e.xaction,  the  colonists, 
though  at  some  inconvenience  to  themselves,  employed  the  gold  bars 
as  money,  whenever  the  magnitude  or  peculiarity  of  their  transactions 
permitted.  Unwilling  to  lose  its  rightful  dues  of  seigniorage,  the 
Crown  now  forbade  the  use  of  dust  or  bullion  as  money,  in  any  case; 
and  although  such  an  interdict  was  often  difficult  to  enforce,  yet,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  the  bulli(Mi  went  to  the  mint  and  submitted 
to  the  seigniorage.  But  this  was  not  enough  for  the  Crown,  which, 
in  order  to  extort  an  additional  profit,  had  recourse  to  a  new  expe- 
dient.    As  this  was  probably  similar  to  the  one  employed  nearly 


250  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

twenty  centuries  before  by  the  Romans  in  Spain,  it  is  worthy  of  a 
detailed  description.  The  expedient  was  to  place  a  higher  value  upon 
its  silver  and  copper  coins  in  Brazil  than  at  home:  it  being  borne  in 
mind  that  the  fabrication  of  coins  is  necessarily  a  state  prerogative, 
and  that  at  that  period  it  was  also  a  Crown  monopoly. 

Bars  of  gold  bullion  made  a  very  inconvenient  sort  of  money.  Their 
value  could  only  be  definitely  expressed  in  coined  money.  If  they 
had  been  regarded  merely  as  pieces  of  merchandise,  a  separate  bar- 
gain would  have  had  to  be  made  in  respect  of  each  piece,  and  in  fix- 
ing its  value,  very  great  allowances  would  have  had  to  be  made  for 
such  changes  of  value  as  each  piece  may  have  undergone,  unknown 
to  the  buyer,  since  the  last  bargain  of  like  nature  took  place.  But 
nothing  of  this  sort  occurred.  It  was  well  known  how  many  "cru- 
sades" each  bar  contained,  and  as  well  known  how  much  merchan- 
dise, or  labour,  each  crusado  would  buy,  either  in  Rio  or  Lisbon. 
The  principal  inconvenience  of  using  bars  arose  from  their  great  and 
uneven  weights.  It  was  seldom  that  a  bar  weighed  less  than  several 
ounces,  and  as  it  was  necessary  for  reasons  of  prudence  to  keep  each 
miner's  lot  of  gold  distinct  from  the  other  lots  deposited  at  the  caza 
de  fundic;aon  (the  same  practice  is  pursued  in  all  mints  today),  it  fol- 
lowed that  the  bars  were  of  uneven  weights,  and  therefore  worth  un- 
even sums  of  money.  For  example,  the  smallest  bar  probably  had 
stamped  upon  it  a  certificate  of  somewhat  the  following  character: 
"This  bar  of  gold  weighs  7  onzas,  7  oitavas,  and  71  granos  '  Its 
fineness  is  10  dinhieros,  19  granos."  Weighing  it  against  the  crusado, 
its  value  after  the  payment  of  seigniorage,  was  i,ooo$i9o.  Such 
a  piece  as  this  one,  of  uneven  weight  and  requiring  an  intricate  cal- 
culation to  determine  its  value  in  money,  could  not  have  been  itself 
used  as  money,  except  in  rare  instances,  and  the  miners  must  have 
been  willing  to  submit  to  any  reasonable  exaction  of  seigniorage, 
rather  than  sell  their  bars,  as  they  would  otherwise  have  had  to  do, 
to  the  bullion-brokers.  Another  inconvenience  arose  from  the  legal 
requirement  that  each  bar  should  be  accompanied  by  "a  printed 
ticket,  stating  the  weight  of  the  gold,  its  value  in  reis,  and  the  quan- 
tity deducted  for  the  royal  treasure."  Without  this  it  was  liable  to 
be  seized  as  contraband.    Malte-Brun,  iii,  393. 

Even  after  all  this,  the  miners'  difficulties  were  only  half  removed. 

By  submitting  to  a  tax  of  20  per  cent,  on  production  and  6;3  per 

'  72graos=i  oitava  ;  8  octavas=i  onza;  8  onzas=^i  marco.  The  marco  was 
equal  to  3541^^  grains  Troy,  or  .64S9  Troy  pounds,  or  229.5  metric  grams.  For  the 
Spanish  mark,  see  the  chapter  of  the  present  work  on  "  Spain."  The  Spanish  mark 
was  equal  to  3550^  grains  Troy. 


BRAZIL.  251 

cent,  on  mintage,  together  equal  to  about  25  percent,  on  production, 
they  could  exchange  refined  gold  bullion  for  coins  containing  an 
equal  weight  of  fine  metal;  but  such  coins  being  of  gold  were  too 
valuable  for  the  ordinary  transactions  of  life.  What  they  wanted  was 
minor  coins,  say  of  silver  and  copper,  with  which  "  to  make  change. " 
The  Crown  being  fully  aware  of  this  requirement,  took  advantage 
of  it,  by  requiring  the  miners  to  pay  more  gold  than  before,  for  a 
given  sum  of  silver  coins.  This  system  was  commenced  by  Dom 
Pedro  II.,  some  time  between  1690  and  1700.  All  the  small  coins — 
even  the  smaller  gold  ones — were  valued  higher  in  the  colonies  than 
in  Portugal.''  Thus,  the  gold  piece  of  3$8oo  in  Portugal  was  ordered 
to,  and  did,  pass  for  4$ooo  or  four  milreis  in  Brazil;  the  pataca  of 
silver,  valued  at  o$24o  in  Portugal,  legally  went  for  o$32o  in  Brazil; 
and  the  vintem  of  copper,  worth  20  reis  in  Portugal,  was  valued  at 
40  reis  in  Brazil.'  The  idea  of  the  Crown  was  that  if  the  producers 
of  gold  wanted  small  change,  they  must  pay  for  it.  Instances  have 
since  occurred  in  California  and  Australia,  where  there  were  no  des- 
potic governments  to  coerce  them,  when  the  miners  voluntarily 
paid  for  silver  coins,  in  gold  dust,  twice,  four  times,  "  and,  in  one 
case,  si.xteen  times,  "  their  mint  value. ^  These  examples  serve  to 
measure  the  difference  between  the  usefulness  of  bullion  and  money. 
Having  in  this  way  sold  its  silver  and  copper  coins  at  as  high  a 
rate  as  practicable  to  the  miners  in  Brazil,  the  Crown  of  Portugal 
turned  around  and  sold  its  gold  at  an  enhanced  rate  to  the  merchants 
in  Europe.  This  was  done,  by  raising  (for  at  that  time  it  had  the 
power  to  do  so)  the  ratio  between  silver  and  gold  to  16,  which  but  a 
few  years  before  had  been  but  13)6  for  i.  The  aggregate  profits  on 
these  various  operations  amounted  in  some  cases  to  no  less  than  70 
per  cent,  on  the  miner's  product  of  gold.  Thus,  supposing  a  miner 
produced  100  pounds  weight  of  gold,  the  quinto  would  have  left  him 
but  80,  and  the  seigniorage  but  74^i  pounds  in  gold  coins.  Upon 
exchanging  this  gold — as  in  many  cases  would  have  had  to  be  done 
— for  small  coins,  he  would  lose  one-half  of  its  European  purchasing 
power,  leaving  him  with  coins  that,  even  if  not  over- valued  in  Por- 

'  John  VI.,  .April  i8,  1S09,  reaffirmetl  this  s.-imc  nie.isure,  and  as  the  currency  was 
then  wholly  of  copper,  it  completely  chanjjed  the  milreis  of  Ikazil.  wliich  thenceforth 
became  worth  only  one-half  that  of  Portugal — a  relation  that  was  respected  in  the 
subse()uent  gold  and  silver  coinages  of  the  Brazilian  Empire,  .\rmitage,  "History 
Brazil,"  ed.  iSif),  11,  54. 

'  .\  similar  system  had  been  pursued  in  England.  From  5  Edward  IV.  to  the  reign 
of  Elizaheth  it  was  usual  to  legally  value  English  coins  one-third  higher  in  Ireland 
than  in  England,  so  that  what  passed  for  three  shillings  in  England  was  legal-tender 
for  four  shillings  in  Ireland.     Case  of  the  Mixt  Moneys. 

*  "Hist.  Tree.  Met.,"  ed.  iSSo,  pp.  221//.,  320-21. 


252  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

tugal,  would  only  purchase  as  much  in  that  country  as  37^  pounds 
of  gold  bullion  would  have  purchased.  But  by  altering  the  ratio  from 
13^  to  16  silver  for  one  gold  the  Crown  had  recently  enhanced  the 
value  of  gold  coins  20  per  cent.  ;  so  that  supposing  the  miner's  venture 
to  have  been  made  on  the  basis  of  the  previous  ratio,  the  silver  coins, 
even  in  Portugal,  were  overvalued  to  this  extent.  On  the  whole, 
then,  the  miner  ultimately  received  the  equivalent  of  scarcely  more 
than  30  pounds  weight  of  gold  for  the  hundred  pounds  weight  which 
he  may  have  committed  all  sorts  of  crimes  to  obtain ;  the  Crown  got 
the  rest. 

Statements  concerning  the  population  of  Brazil  at  various  periods 
since  its  discovery  have  been  made  by  the  following  authorities; 
Humboldt,  Malte-Brun,  Sousa,  Soares,  Scully,  Eubank,  Annitage, 
Southey,  Murray,  Seaman,  Weimer,  McCulloch,  Balbi,  Cannabich, 
Midden,  Behm  and  Wagner,  Velloso,  the  National  Censuses  and  the 
Encyclopedists.  Upon  a  comparison  of  these  authorities,  and  after 
a  residence  of  two  years  in  the  country  itself,  the  writer  ventures 
upon  the  following  estimates.  At  the  period  of  the  discovery  Brazil 
probably  contained  a  native  Indian  population  of  two  or  three  mil- 
lions. These  are  now  reduced  to  about  one  million,  of  whom  about 
three-fourths  are  classified  as  "  domesticated,"  and  one-half  of  the 
latter  as  "converted."  African  negros  began  to  be  imported  into 
the  Brazils  so  early  as  1570,  but  it  was  not  until  after  the  accession 
of  the  Braganza  family  (A.  D.  1640),  that  this  heinous  traffic  as- 
sumed great  proportions.  In  1750  the  negro  slaves,  free  negros, 
mulatosand  mestizos  numbered  about  1,500,000;  1800,  same  classes, 
3^000,000;  1816-18,  2,500,000;  1830,  3,500,000;  1845,  4,400,000; 
^^SSi  55°°°>°oo;  1865,  5,500,000;  1875,6,000,000;  1895,  6,500,000. 
During  the  i8th  century  the  white  population  was  about  half  a 
million;  at  the  beginning  of  the  19th  it  was  about  three-fourths  of  a 
million;  in  1816-18,  about  850,000;  1830,  900,000;  1845,  1,250,000; 
1855,  1,500,000;  1865,  1,750,000;  1875,  2,000,000;  1895,  2,500,000. 
Owing  to  the  admixture  of  races,  Indians,  whites  and  negros, 
forming  such  classes  as  Mamalucos,  Zanibos,  etc.,  as  well  as  to  the 
unreliability  of  the  official  censuses,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to 
get  at  the  truth.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  population  is  chiefly 
African  ;  but  comparatively  few  white  people  being  seen  away 
from  the  coast  cities.  The  persons  actually  employed  in  mining  for 
the  precious  metals,  who  consisted  almost  exclusively  of  Indian 
cautivas  (captives)  and  negro  slaves,  probably  numbered  during  the 
17th  century,  from  50,000  to  100,000;  during  the  first  half  of  the  i8th 


BRAZIL.  253 

century, from  100,000  to  200, 000  ""j  during  tlie  last  half,  from  200,000 
down  to  50,000';  and  during  the  first  half  of  the  19th  century,  from 
50,000  down  to  10,000;  when  the  placers  were  abandoned,  the  slaves 
were  emancipated  and  only  those  remained  who  were  employed  in 
the  quartz  mines,'  or  earned  with  the  batea  their  scant  12  cents  a 
day  by  panning  gravel  on  their  own  account.  If  the  whole  number  of 
captives  and  slaves  forced  to  labour  in  the  gold  mines  of  Brazil  be 
multiplied  by  the  years  they  worked,  and  the  quotient  divided  into 
the  entire  product  of  the  mines,  it  will  be  found  that  they  produced 
on  the  average  less  than  $40  a  year  per  man.  Of  this  amount  one- 
fifth  went  to  the  Crown  at  the  outset,  leaving  but  $32  per  man.  By 
the  time  the  mine  proprietor  turned  this  into  coins  it  would  he  re- 
duced to  about  $26,  thus  reducing  the  average  product  to  about  half 
an  American  gold  dollar  per  week  per  man,  less  than  the  solitary 
gleaner  still  wins  in  freedom  from  the  neglected  corners  of  the  aban- 
doned catas.  The  imagination  can  scarcely  realize  the  cruelty  and 
privation  to  which  the  mining  slaves  were  formerly  subjected  in 
order  to  "  make  them  pay"  the  cost  of  their  maintenance.*  But  for 
all  this,  except  in  newly  discovered  and  unusually  rich  catas,  they 
never  did  pay,  so  that  little  by  little,  though  very  reluctantly,  their 
masters  permitted  such  of  them  as  survived — and  among  these  were 
few  or  no  Indians — to  be  drafted  into  the  less  alluring,  but,  as  it  has 
turned  out,  far  more  profitable,  fields  of  agriculture.  The  economical 
cost  of  the  billion  dollars  worth  of  gold  taken  from  Brazil  was  prac- 
tically a  fortnight's  work  of  a  slave  for  each  dollar's  worth  of  bullion. 
According  to  Mr.  W'm.  Jacob's  Appendi.x  No.  9,  there  were  working 

*  Raynal  estimated  the  "  domesticated  "  Indian  population  for  about  the  year  1750 
at  245,000  males.  This  implies  for  a  mining  countr)'  at  least  300,000  of  both  se.\es  ; 
of  whom  it  is  estimated  that  two-thirds  were  employed  in  the  mines. 

*  The  correspondent  of  the  London  Times,  writing  from  Kio  in  September,  l88o» 
and  evidently  referring  to  the  latter  portion  of  this  period,  said  that  the  diggings  for- 
merly employeil  So. (xxj  men.  Captain  (.'ook,  who  visited  Hrazil  in  I7()S,  said  that 
"near  forty  thousand  negros  are  annually  imported  to  dig  in  these  mines."    Mavor. 

'  "  It  recently  transpired  that  over  150  negros  who  had  been  emancipated  twenty 
years  ago,  had  been  kept  all  that  time  in  ignorance  of  their  freedom  at  work  upon  the 
St.  John  del  Key  gold  mine!"  Money  and  Civilization,  p.  1O2.  This  mine  was  and 
is  still  owned  entirely  in  Kngland.  The  resident  manager  was  an  Englishman,  who 
committed  suicide  when  his  crime  was  exposed. 

*  "  What  fools  you  are,"  said  a  lira/ilian  mine-owner  to  some  run-away  shaves  who 
had  been  re-captured  and  duly  whipped.  "  Out  of  the  total  product  of  these  mines 
you  get  two-thirds,  for  that's  what  it  costs  to  support  you  ;  the  King  gets  the  other 
third  ;  and  I.  who  furnish  the  enterprise  and  the  capital,  get  nothing.  Vet  you  are 
not  satisfied,  and  ungratefully  wish  to  abandon  me!"  The  slaves  were  so  struck  by 
the  justice  of  these  remarks  that  they  all  resigned  themselves  to  work,  until  they  died 
from  privation.  .\  similar  effect  seems  to  have  been  recently  produced  upon  the 
cardrivers  of  New  York,  when  it  was  shown  that  they  got  40  per  cent,  of  the  road 
earnings,  while  the  proprietors  or  shareholders  only  got  ^  of  one  per  cent. 


254 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


in  all  the  lavras  or  placer  mines  of  Minhas  Geraes  in  the  years  1812 
and  1813,  freemen  and  slaves  to  the  number  of  17,008,  of  whom 
10,603  were  "slavesof  the  miners,"  and  2,148  "slave  washers."  The 
total  average  annual  produce  of  gold  was  310,084  milreis,  which  at 
that  period  were  roughly  equal  in  value  to  Spanish  silver  dollars. 
Assuming  that  the  men  all  worked  in  or  about  the  mines,  which  is 
evidently  what  Mr.  Jacob  means,  it  follows  that  the  average  produce 
of  each  man  was  less  than  $20  per  annum!  In  the  lavras  of  Cam- 
panha,  taken  by  themselves,  the  average  produce  per  man  was  $27 
per  annum.  From  the  writer's  personal  knowledge  of  this  district, 
he  is  able  to  say  that  the  statement  appears  to  be  entirely  correct. 

It  is  now  time  to  collate  the  statistics  of  production.  Except  as  to 
the  gross  sums  derived  from  the  placers  during  the  first  sixty  years 
of  their  productiveness  these  are  far  from  satisfactory.  The  best 
account,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is  afforded  by  the  Abbe  Raynal.  Says  this 
distinguished  author:  "It  y's  Atvac>w^\x2i)a\&^  from  the  registers  of  the 
fleets,  that  in  the  space  of  sixty  years,  that  is,  from  the  discovery  of 
the  mines  to  the  year  1756,  two  thousand  four  hundred  million  liv- 
res  (about  $480,000,000)  worth  of  gold  have  been  brought  away  from 
Brazil."  Raynal  admits  that  the  registers  of  the  fleets  did  not  con- 
tain a  full  account  of  the  production:  for  much  of  this  found  its  way 
to  market  in  a  surreptitious  manner  to  evade  the  Quinto,  which,  for 
all  except  a  brief  portion  of  the  'whole  period  of  production,  was 
fixed  at  20  per  cent.,  also  the  haberias  or  convoy  duties, the  seignior- 
age of  the  mints  and  other  exactions. 

During  the  earlier  period  of  the  placer  development,  the  number 
of  vessels  annually  dispatched  from  Portugal  to  the  Brazils,  did  not 
exceed  twelve,  but  as  the  mines  grew  into  importance  these  amounted 
to  a  hundred.  No  ship  was  allowed  to  sail  except  with  the  fleets. 
Of  these,  one  sailed  for  Rio  in  January,  one  for  Bahia  in  February, 
and  one  for  Pernambuco  in  March.  Sometimes  they  sailed  twice  in 
a  year.  These  fleets  were  convoyed  by  men-of-war,  to  protect  them 
from  enemies  and  pirates,  and  for  this  duty  there  was  levied  a  charge 
called  haberia.  The  haberia  was  established  by  Spain  in  1522,  and 
consisted,  at  first,  of  one  per  cent,  ad  valorem  upon  the  freight.  It 
was,  however,  shortly  afterwards  raised  to  5  per  cent.  What  the  rate 
was  in  Portugal  cannot  be  determined;  but  it  was  probably  no  less 
than  the  one  last  named.  Insurance  on  the  voyage  out  and  return  was 
eleven  per  cent.  Interest  8  per  cent,  per  annum.  There  were  other 
exactions  upon  gold  which  will  presently  be  treated  more  at  length. 

Taking  into  account  these  various  exactions,  and  the  extent  to 


11KA21I..  255 

•which  the  official  returns  were  vitiated  by  evasions,  the  Baron  von 
Humboldt  in  his  "New  Spain,"  estimated  the  total  product  of  the 
gold  placers  of  Brazil  from  1680  to  1803  at  $855,500,000.  Mr.  Dan- 
son,  in  an  elaborate  paper  on  the  subject  which  he  read  before  the 
Statistical  Society  of  London,  going  over  the  same  ground,  and  with 
all  of  the  authorities  before  him,  estimated  the  product  from  16S0 
to  1S03  at  c)22  millions.  Finally,  Dr.  Southey  estimated  the  Quinto 
(or  royal  duty  of  one-fifth  upon  the  production)  of  gold  during  the 
same  period,  and  down  to  1807  at  225  millions;  which  would  make 
the  total  product  more  than  1,125  millions.  "  History  of  Brazil." 
m,  p.  820.  Southey's  estimate  makes  an  allowance  of  one-fifth  for 
smuggling  and  is  called  the  Product  of  the  mines;  not  the  Quinto. 
But  from  the  estimates  of  separate  years  in  other  parts  ofhis  work  it 
it  is  evidently  the  Quinto  that  is  meant. 

Guided  by  these  estimates  and  by  the  accounts  of  the  product  in 
various  years,  obtained  by  consulting  a  number  of  other  authorities, 
we  have  ventured  to  make  the  estimates  given  below.  While  the 
scantiness  and  uncertainty  of  the  attainable  data  does  not  admit  of 
any  pretension  to  exactness  in  the  table,  so  far  as  one  particular  de- 
cade or  another  is  concerned,  it  is  believed  to  be  reliable,  first,  in 
respect  to  the  period  at  which  the  placers  of  Brazil  commenced  to 
be  noticeably  productive;  second,  as  to  the  total  sum  of  the  product 
from  first  to  last,  and  even  as  to  the  total  sum  in  any  one  period 
consisting  of  not  less  than  two  or  three  decades ;  and,  third,  as  to  the 
period  of  greatest  productiveness,  viz.:  1730  to  1750.  With  this 
qualified  assertion  of  its  reliability,  the  table  will   now  be  adduced. 

Estimated  total  Gold  product  of  Brazil,  from  the  period  of  the  discoi'crv  of  the 
placers  to  thi  present  time,  collated  from  the  following  authorities:  Raynal,  I/um- 
boldt,  Jacob,  Danson,  Ma'ue,  Birkmyre,  Southey,  Phillips,  Kelly,  Beauchamp  and 
others. 

Sums  in  Millions  of  American  Gold  Dollars. 


Period. 

Product. 

Period. 

Product. 

Period. 

Product. 

Period. 

Produ 

Before 

— 

1720-29 

lOO.O 

17S0-S9 

50.0 

1S40-49 

130 

1680 

25.0 

1730-39 

200.0 

1790-^9 

43.0 

iS 50-59 

15.0 

16S0-89 

lO.O 

1 740-49 

150.0 

1800-09 

25.0 

i8()0-69 

13.5 

l690-<)9 

15.0 

1750-59 

75.0 

1810-19 

12.5 

1S70-99 

12.5 

1700-09 

30.0 

1760-69 

50.0 

1820-29 

15.0 

1S80-89 

13.5 

1710-19 

50.0 

1770-79 

50.0 

1830-39 

20.0 

1890-99 

15.0 

According  to  this  table  the  total  product,  from  1700  to  1755  in- 
clusive, the  period  covered  by  Raynal's  statistics,  was  about  580 
millions;  or  about  one-fourth  more  than  was  shown  by  the  registers 
of  the  fleets.  From  1680  to  1803  it  was  833  millions  compared  with 
863  millions  estimated  by  the  Baron  von  Humboldt,  and  922  millions, 


256  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

estimated  by  Mr.  Danson;  a  substantial  agreement  in  both  cases. 
The  estimate  of  Dr.  Southey  is  rejected  as  excessive. 

Until  within  recent  years  the  extent  of  the  Brazilian  gold  product 
was  scarcely  less  than  had  been  that  of  either  the  Californian  or 
Australian.  When  it  is  considered  how  much  less  gold  there  was 
in  the  world's  stock  of  the  precious  metals,  at  the  period  when  Brazil 
threw  her  auriferous  product  into  Europe,  than  there  was  when  Cali- 
fornia and  Australia  were  productive,  the  importance  of  the  Brazilian 
placers,  will  be  seen  to  have  been  even  greater  than  that  of  the  great 
placers  of  the  present  centur3\ 

The  impositions  levied  by  the  Portuguese  government  upon  the 
product  of  the  Brazilian  gold  fields  now  demand  some  further  men- 
tion. In  the  absence  of  legal  authorities  upon  the  subject,  there  is 
considerable  uncertainty  with  regard  to  the  royalties,  seigniorages, 
convoy-duties,  and  other  impositions  which  the  Portuguese  monarchs 
levied  upon  the  gold  product  of  Brazil.  The  historical  authorities 
have  not  paid  that  attention  to  the  subject  which  its  importance  de- 
mands, and  the  most  that  can  be  hoped  for  with  respect  to  this  mat- 
ter is  substantial  correctness. 

First,  as  to  the  Quinto  or  Royal  fifth  on  production.  From  the 
medieval  workings  of  the  auriferous  sands  at  the  estuary  of  the  Tagus, 
the  Portuguese  monarchs  had  exacted  one-half  of  the  gold  found  in 
the  lower  layer  or  malhada,  leaving  all  of  the  inferior  quantities  ob- 
tainable from  the  upper  layer,  or  medaon,  to  the  washers,  who  were, 
however,  subject  to  a  capitation  tax;  the  adiceiros  de  malhada,  to 
two  coronas,  and  the  adiceiros  de  medaon  to  one  corona  per  annum. 
After  this,  the  King,  by  compelling  them  to  sell  their  gold  to  the 
mint  for  less  than  its  weight  in  coin,  managed  to  extort  something 
more  out  of  them. 

In  the  proportion  of  production  thus  demanded  from  the  gold  miner, 
there  appears  no  likeness  to  the  Quinto  or  fifth,  which  afterwards  so 
universally  constituted  the  tax  throughout  the  American  possessions 
of  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  which  derived  its  origin  from  the  Ma- 
hometan Koran.  The  Quinto  was  the  tax  imposed  by  the  King  of 
Portugal  upon  the  production  of  gold  in  Brazil. 

Previous  to  17 14,  the  Quinto  appears  to  have  been  levied  and  paid 
pretty  fairly.  At  that  period  the  difficulties  and  excessive  cost  of 
production  had  become  apparent  to  the  miners.  These  considera- 
tions, together  with  the  magnitude  of  the  Quinto,  which  now  amounted 
upon  an  average  to  a  million  dollars  yearly,  led  to  great  dissatisfac- 
tion among  the  colonists.    The  upshot  of  this  was  that  in  17 14  it  was 


HRAZIL.  257 

"commuted"  by  some  otlier  tax,  of  whose  character  and  weight  wc 
have  no  account.  From  the  nature  of  the  subsequent  commutation, 
made  in  1730,  it  may  be  surmised  to  have  amounted  to  at  least  one- 
half  of  the  Quinto,  i.e.,  to  ten  per  cent.,  instead  of  twenty. 

In  1720  the  Quinto  was  resumed.  Dr.  Southey  says  of  this  period 
that  the  Quinto  was  not  half  paid;  but  Southey,  though  an  indus- 
trious, was  not  always  a  careful  writer,  and  in  view  of  the  discordance 
of  opinion  on  this  subject,  presently  to  be  shown,  and  the  fact  that 
generally,  and  as  to  the  whole  product  of  the  mines  from  beginning 
to  end,  about  two-thirds  of  the  Quinto  is  known  to  have  been  col- 
lected, his  assertion  is  to  be  received  with  caution. 

In  1730  the  Quinto,  now  amounting  (if  all  paid)  to  upwards  of 
$4, 000, 000 a  year,  to  say  nothing  of  the  seigniorage  of  673  per  cent, 
upon  coinage, became  so  great  and  oppressive  as  to  lead  to  open  insur- 
rection; followed  in  the  end  by  a  compromise.  This  consisted  of  a 
temporary  reduction  of  the  Quinto  in  1730,  and  in  1736  by  a  capita- 
tion ta.x  on  the  miners  of  two  octaves  and  twelve  vinteims  weight  of 
gold  per  capita  per  annum.  The  product  of  the  imposts  during  both 
the  reduction  and  the  capitation  ta.x  was  about  one-half  of  the  Quinto. 
In  other  words,  the  ta.v  on  production  was  practically  lowered  to  ten 
per  cent.,  plus  a  capitation  tax. 

In  1 75 1  the  Quinto  was  renewed.  The  government  by  this  time  had 
established  military  posts  and  such  a  system  of  supervision  over  the 
mines  as  rendered  evasion  difficult.  The  proportion  of  the  product 
that  escaped  the  tax,  continued,  however,  to  increase;  until,  towards 
the  beginning  of  the  19th  century,  it  probably  amounted  to  one-half, 
as  against  one-fourth  or  one-fifth  during  the  most  productive  periods. 
The  general  tendency  of  the  evasions  of  excessive  impositions  is  to 
increase  in  proportion  as  the  impost  grows  old,  and  the  tax-payer 
becomes  more  familiar  with  the  devices  of  evasion.  At  the  outset 
almost  all  imposts,  however  excessive,  are  generally  pretty  fully  met. 

This  tendency  of  an  evasion  of  duty  to  increase  with  the  lapse  of 
time,  not  usually  being  familiar  to  historical  writers,  and  each  one 
generalizing  from  the  facts  before  him  coveringonly  a  limited  period, 
has  occasioned  the  utmost  discordance  of  opinion,  with  regard  to  the 
general  proportion  of  the  Crown  taxes  on  gold,  to  the  whole  product 
of  that  metal.  Dr.  Southey's  opinion  was,  that  one-half  of  the  gold 
escaped  taxation;  but  he  himself  bears  the  strongest  testimony  to 
the  vigilance  of  the  Crown  officials,  and  the  severe  penalties  visited 
upon  all  who  attempted  to  evade  the  Quinto.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
avers  that  the  officials  themselves  were  dishonest,  and  that  the  col- 


258  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

lectors  sometimes  mixed  copper  with  the  gold  composing  the  Quinto. 
As  for  the  opinion  of  Comara,  a  Portuguese  authority  quoted  by 
Southey,  that  the  Crown  only  got  one-twentieth  of  its  dues,  it  is  too 
extravagant  to  merit  any  consideration.  Baron  von  Humboldt,  with 
that  more  comprehensive  and  certain  grasp  of  large  facts,  which 
formed  the  distinguishing  trait  of  his  ability,  estimated  the  evasions 
on  the  whole  at  one-fourth,  and  this  was  probably  very  near  the  truth. 

The  colonial  mint  established  in  1694,  was  located  successively  at 
Bahia,  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Pernambuco,  finally  settling  at  Rio  in 
1 702,  where  it  has  remained  ever  since.  Another  mint  was  established 
at  Bahia  in  17 14,  and  was  in  operation  until  1834.  A  melting-house, 
caza  de  fundifaon,  was  also  established  in  Minhas  Geraes  in  1721. 
After  being  closed  for  some  time,  this  establishment  was  reopened 
in  1825,  when  certain  English  capitalists  commenced  quartz-mining 
in  Brazil;  but  it  was  closed  again  in  1835. 

The  colonial  coinage  previous  to  1703,  only  amounted  to  about 
$700,000;  from  1703  to  1833  $216,300,000;  from  1834  to  1847, 
$600,000,  and  from  1847  to  1873  $44,600,000;  total,  262  millions. 
It  has  since  been  very  trifling,  the  currency  being  entirely  of  paper, 
with  nickel  and  copper  coins  for  small  change.  The  remainder  of 
the  bullion  product  was  formerly  carried  chiefly  in  English  vessels  to 
Portugal  and  England ;  a  small  portion  finding  its  way  across  the  Rio 
de  la  Plata.  It  now  goes  entirely  to  England.  With  regard  to  the 
haberia  or  convoy  duty,  this,  as  before  stated,^amounted  to  about  5 
per  cent,  ad  valorem  on  the  registered  product.  As  to  the  further 
imposts  which  the  Crown  of  Portugal  managed  to  extort  from 
this  product  through  its  colonial  policy,  a  policy  whereby  the  gold 
miners  were  obliged  to  pay  customs-duties  upon  the  food,  clothing, 
tools,  quicksilver  and  other  supplies  needed  for  the  prosecution  of 
their  industry,  and  to  suffer  other  exactions — these  may  be  passed 
over  as  subjects  too  remote  from  the  main  topic  of  this  work  to 
merit  further  consideration. 

Another  matter  in  this  connection  appears,  however,  to  deserve 
mention  here.  The  gold  product  of  Brazil  gave  rise  to  a  measure 
which,  to  this  day,  exercises  an  important  bearing  upon  commercial 
affairs.  In  1688  Portugal  changed  the  legal  ratio  of  silver  to  gold 
in  her  coinages  to  16  for  one.  This  at  the  time,  as  compared  with  the 
valuation  at  other  mints,  was  an  over-valuation  of  gold,  yet  from  the 
magnitude  of  her  gold  coinages,  it  tended  to  change  the  ratio  of  the 
entire  commercial  world.  In  1747,  when  the  maximum  yield  of  her 
Brazilian  placers  had  declined,  Portugal  over-valued  her  silver  coins. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


NORTH    AMKRICA. 


Man-ellous  story  of  Cabeza  dc  Vaca,  1527 — Expedition  of  Father  Marcos,  1539 — 
It  catches  sight  of  Cibola  and  returns  with  great  news  to  Mexico — Expedition  of 
Coronado.  1540 — He  reports  the  country  a  desert  and  the  Seven  Cities  as  worthless — 
Other  expeditions  to  various  parts  of  North  America. 

STRANGE  reports  reached  the  City  of  Me.xico,  about  fifteen  years 
after  its  conquest  by  the  Spaniards,  respecting  the  unknown 
countries  which  lay  to  the  north  and  northwest.  Those  as  yet  un- 
discovered regions  were  supposed  to  abut  upon  the  kingdoms  of  India, 
and  were  said  to  contain  not  only  rich  and  populous  nations  and 
splendid  cities,  but  also  mountains  of  gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones, 
oceans  of  pearls,  islands  of  Amazons,  mermaids,  unicorns,  and  all  the 
marvels  which  for  centuries  had  played  a  part  in  the  fables  and  ro- 
mances of  Europe.  The  conquerors,  even  though  in  the  presence 
of  the  glories  of  Tenochtitlan,  believed  they  had  entered  merely  the 
threshold  oi  the  wealth  and  splendour  of  the  New  World,  and  that  the 
true  Dorado  lay  in  the  far  North  beyond. 

Among  these  stories  the  strangest  were  concerning  the  Seven  Cities 
of  Cibola,  or  the  Scptem  Civitatcs,  as  they  were  called  by  the  Latin- 
speaking  priesthood  of  the  day.  The  exact  situation  of  these  famous 
cities  was  not  pointed  out;  but  in  all  the  ancient  maps,  however  gen- 
eral and  defective  in  other  respects,  they  were  invariably  designated, 
and  given  "a  local  habitation  and  a  name."  In  soitie,  they  were 
represented  as  rearing  their  giant  towers  where  the  then  unknown 
Bay  of  San  Francisco  ought  to  have  been;  in  others,  as  lying  at  the 
head  of  the  California  Gulf,  and  in  others  as  more  nearly  in  the  cen- 
tre of  the  great  sandy  wastes,  like  Palmyra  in  the  desert.  However 
erroneous,  and  at  whatever  times  these  maps  may  have  been  made, 
they  all  exhibited  the  Seven  Cities,  or  the  Scptem  Civitates,  as  if  they 
were  as  well  known  as  the  cities  around  the  Lake  of  Tescuco. 

The  bringers  of  these  stories  were  Alvaro  Nufiez  Cabeza  de  Vaca 
and  his  companions,  Alonzo  de  Castillo,  Andres  de  Orantes,  and  a 
negro  called  Estevanico,  the  last  of  whom,  by  the  way,  is  one  of  the 


26o  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

first  of  his  race  named  in  American  annals.  These  persons,  accord- 
ing to  the  reports  they  gave  of  themselves,  were  of  the  unfortunate 
expedition,  conducted  by  Panfilo  de  Xarvaez,  into  Florida,  in  the  year 
1527.  Managing  to  escape  the  death  which  their  leader  and  com- 
rades suffered,  they  found  means,  by  persuading  the  Indians  that  they 
possessed miraculouspowers for  healingsicknesses,tosubsist.  Several 
fortunate  recoveries  under  their  hands  gave  colour  to  their  preten- 
sions. They  passed  from  tribe  to  tribe,  and  gradually,  after  wander- 
ing for  nine  long  years,  reached  the  Pacific  and  at  last  made  their 
way  to  Mexico — being  thus  the  first  Europeans  who  crossed  the  con- 
tinent north  of  the  tropics.  In  narrating  their  adventures  they  as- 
sured their  wondering  listeners  that  the  interior  of  the  country 
through  which  they  had  passed  was  full  of  various  nations;  that  they 
themselves  had  seen  much  wealth  in  the  shape  of  arrow-heads  of  the 
finest  emerald,  and  big  bags  of  silver;  and  that  they  had  heard  of 
many  peoples,  living  further  north,  who  possessed  great  cities  and 
abundant  riches.  These  reports,  sustained  as  they  were  by  the  credit 
of  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  confirmed  the  Spaniards  in  their  previously  some- 
what vague  belief  in  the  wealth  of  the  northwest,  and  not  only  in- 
duced Cortes  to  continue  his  exertions,  but  attracted  the  enterprise 
of  others,  who,  it  might  be  supposed,  would  have  been  the  last  to 
engage  in  visionary  schemes  or  mere  romantic  adventures. 

One  of  these  latter  was  Father  Marcos  deNiza,  a  Franciscan  priest 
and  provincial  of  his  order.  He  w^as  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
solid  and  substantial  men  in  the  New  World,  but  he  became  so  much 
animated  by  the  reports  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  that,  without  consider- 
ing personal  risk  and  inconvenience,  he  determined  at  once  and 
almost  alone  to  explore  those  wonderful  countries,  and  reap  the  early 
harvest  of  uncounted  wealth,  as  well  as  of  regenerated  souls,  which 
they  promised.  Accordingly,  having  secured  the  services  of  the 
negro  Estevanico  as  a  guide,  and  a  number  of  Indian  interpreters, 
he  set  out  for  Culiacan,  the  most  northern  of  the  Spanish  settlements 
on  the  Pacific,  in  March,  1539.  He  travelled  first  a  hundred  leagues 
northwestward  along  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  California,  and 
reached,  and  in  four  days  crossed,  a  desert.  This  brought  him  to  a 
country  where  the  natives  had  no  knowledge  whatever  of  the  Chris- 
tians, and  believed  him  a  Man  come  from  Heaven.  They  placed  be- 
fore him  provisions  in  great  quantities,  and  touched  his  priestly  robes 
with  reverence.  He  was  conducted  to  an  eminence  near  the  Seven 
Cities  which  he  saw,  but  was  not  permitted  to  enter.  He  obtained 
no  gold,  but  returned  to  Mexico  with  an  excited  account  of   the 


NORTH    AMKRICA.  261 

Septem  Civitates;  to  which  it  was  now  resolveil  to  seiul  a  strong 
expedition  under  Coronado,  who  was  orcUicd  lo  iiluiulcr  thcin. 

Coronadosetout fromCiiliacanon  April  2jiul,  i54o,witli  the  express 
design  of  concjuerino^  the  Seven  Cities,  and  all  the  countries  in  that 
part  of  the  world.  When  he  reached  the  neighborhood  of  tlie  valley 
among  the  mountains,  which  Marcos  de  Niza  had  reported  to  be  full 
of  gold,  he  sent  off  a  detachment  of  horsemen  to  reconnoitre  it.  They 
did  so,  but  brought  back  cold  comfort.  He  assures  us  they  found 
neither  cities,  nor  gold,  nor  anything,  but  a  few  Indians,  who  lived 
upon  maize,  beans,  and  calabasiies,  and  in  warfare  used  poisoned 
arrows,  with  which  they  killed  several  of  his  soldiers.  He  thereupon 
continued  his  march;  taking,  however,  a  somewhat  different  route 
from  that  pursued  by  Marcos  de  Niza;  for  he  crossed  several  moun- 
tain chains  and  two  rivers,  one  of  which  he  called  the  San  Juan,  and 
the  other  the  Balsas.  In  the  course  of  a  month  or  more,  having 
passed  over  countries  diversified  with  deserts,  fruitful  valleys,  moun- 
tains and  plains,  in  all  of  which  ther^  was  nothing  to  attract  his  at- 
tention, he  at  last  stood,  with  his  army,  before  Cibola — Cibola  the 
famous,  Cibola  the  renowned!  The  imaginations  of  all  had  been 
raised  to  the  highest  pitch  by  Marcos  de  Niza's  account  of  his  recon- 
naisance  of  this  renowned  locality  from  the  mountains.  But  all  that 
Coronado  could  now  see  was  a  few  small  towns,  consisting  of  houses 
built,  indeed,  of  stone,  and  having  flat  roofs,  but  peopled  ^Vith  only 
a  few  hundred  miserable  inhabitants.  He  admits  that  the  country 
was  delightful,  and  the  soil  fruitful;  but  he  intimates,  and  indeed 
virtually  declares,  that  the  narrative  of  Marcos  was  a  fable.  He, 
Coronado,  could  finding  nothing  worthy  of  concjuest,  nothing  to  at- 
tract emigration,  nothing  to  justify  settlement.  The  country  was 
remote;  and  there  was  in  it  neither  civilization,  nor  splendour,  nor 
wealth,  nor  turquoises,  nor  precious  stones,  nor  silver,  nor  gold. 

In  1496  John  Cabota,  a  Venetian  navigator  and  adventurer,  living 
at  Bristol,  England,  organized  a  private  expedition  to  obtain  treasure 
in  Cathay  and  the  Indies.  He  obtained  authority  from  Henry  VII. 
to  search  for  islands  or  i^rovinces  and  to  take  possession  of  the  same 
as  a  vassal  of  the  Crown,  upon  condition  that  the  latter  should  re- 
ceive one-fifth  of  the  proceeds  of  the  expedition.  Under  this  charter 
Cabota,  or  Cabot,  embarked  in  a  single  vessel  and  rediscovered,  in 
1497,  the  continent  of  North  America,  which  the  Goths  had  discov- 
ered five  centuries  previously.  He  sailed  along  its  coasts,  which  he 
mistook  or  pretended  to  mistake  for  those  of  Cathay,  or  China,  for  a 
distance  of  300  leagues,  and  claimed  them  for  England  and  \'enice. 


262  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Cabot  returned  to  England  without  having  seen  a  single  inhabitant 
or  obtained  a  piece  of  gold.  This  ill-fortune  rendered  abortive  ail 
his  efforts  to  organize  a  second  expedition;  so  he  disappeared  from 
the  lists  of  American  discoverers  and  died  in  obscurity. 

In  15 1 2  Juan,  Ponce  de  Leon,  governor  of  Porto  Rico,  allured  by 
tales  which  were  invented  by  the  Indians  of  Cuba  and  Hispaniola — 
perhaps  in  the  hope  of  getting  rid  of  him  and  his  rapacious  crew — 
sailed  with  three  brigantines  and  a  band  of  adventurers  from  Porto 
Rico  to  the  island  of  Bimini.  In  this  island,  one  of  the  Lucayas,  the 
Cuban  Indians  informed  him,  would  be  found  abundance  of  gold  and 
beautiful  women,  and  a  Fountain,  to  bathe  in  which,  was  to  remain 
forever  youthful.  In  the  contract  with  the  Crown  of  Spain,  which 
formed  the  basis  of  De  Leon's  expedition,  the  adventurer  was  to  be 
entitled  to  encomiendas  of  Indians  and  women,  and  in  return  he  was 
to  pay  to  the  king,  at  first  a  tenth,  afterwards  a  fifth,  of  the  gold  ob- 
tained.' De  Leon  found  the  island  and  the  women,  but  neither  the 
Fountain  nor  the  gold;  and  as  the  latter  was  the  principal  object  of 
the  expedition,  he  resumed  his  voyage,  this  time  guided,  or  rather 
misled  by  the  Lucayan  Indios,  and  steering  westward,  discovered  an 
unknown  land,  which  he  named  Florida,  and  proclaimed  a  possession 
of  Spain.  Believing  his  force  inadequate  to  explore  the  interior,  he 
followed  the  coast  to  Key  West  and  the  Tortugas,  whence  he  returned 
to  Porto-Rico.  After  obtaining  a  royal  charter  in  Spain,  he  devoted 
his  energies  to  the  project  of  conquering  Florida;  and,  nine  years 
later,  he  attempted  to  carry  it  into  execution;  but  the  natives  fiercely 
opposed  his  advance,  mortally  wounded  him  in  person,  and  drove  him 
and  his  party  away.^ 

In  1520,  Lucas  Vasquez  de  Ayllon,  auditor  and  judge  of  appeals  at 
San  Domingo,  landed  in  Florida,  but  found  no  gold.  After  enslaving 
some  Indians,  he  returned  to  San  Domingo,  where  he  sold  them. 
Upon  a  second  expedition  of  a  similar  kind  he  was  killed. 

In  1523,  Francis  I.  of  France  authorized  John  Verrazzani,  a  Floren- 
tine Havigator,  to  explore  the  coasts  of  North  America  for  gold  and 
other  spoil.  He  landed  near  the  present  harbour  of  Wilmington, 
N.  C,  then  sailed  into  what  are  now  the  harbours  of  New  York  and 
Newport,  but  found  no  gold  nor  signs  of  any,  and  returned  to  France 
without  farther  adventure. 

In  1524,  De  Geray,  a  Spaniard,  landed  in  Florida,  but  like  his  pre- 
decessors, found  no  gold  in  that  country. 

In  1527,  Pamfilo  de  Narvaez,  fired  by  the  riches  and  fame  which 
'  Parkman's  narrative.        ^  For  another  Ponce  de  Leon,  in  Mexico,  see  aiite. 


NORTH    AMERICA. 


363 


Cortes  had  acquired  in  Mexico,  attempted  the  conquest  of  Florida 
with  400  men  and  80  horses.  Their  objective  point  was  Appalache,  a 
native  citv,  said  to  be  filled  with  gold,  but  which,  in  fact,  proved  to 
be  a  village  of  a  few  poor  wigwams.  It  was  evident  that  the  Indios 
had  misled  him,  in  order  that  he  and  his  command  might  perish. 
Surrounded  by  a  difficult  country,  destitute  of  provisions,  and  har- 
rowed by  a  sleepless  enemy,  the  expetiition  entirely  failed.  After  a 
terrible  march  from  Tampa  Bay  to  the  Apalachicola,  the  remnants 
of  his  band  attempted  to  reach  Mexico.  In  this,  only  four  of  them 
succeeded,  among  them  his  second  in  command,  Alvaro  Nunez  Cabe<;a 
de  Vaca.  Narvaez  and  all  the  rest  perished,  while  Cabe^a  de  Vaca, 
with  his  three  companions,  only  accomplished  the  journey  after  eight 
years  of  extraordinary  hardship  and  suffering.  They  crossed  the 
Mississippi  and  traversed  the  western  plains,  travelling  as  Children 
of  the  Sun,  and  officiating  among  the  Indians  as  wizards.  They  ar- 
rived at  Culiacan,  on  the  Pacific  coast,  in  1536. 

Amongst  the  band  of  adventurers  whom  Pizarro  had  led  to  Peru 
was  one  Hernando  de  Soto,  whose  share  of  the  Inca's  spoil  was  so 
great,  that  upon  his  return  to  Spain  he  was  enabled  to  make  an  en- 
vious display  of  his  riches.  Thirsting  for  renown,  he  applied  for  and 
obtained  permission  from  the  Crown  to  subjugate  Florida,  which  at 
that  period  meant  all  that  was  known  of  the  entire  continent  of 
North  America.'  While  the  expedition  was  being  organized,  Cabeya 
de  Vaca  returned  to  Spain,  and  to  advance  his  own  fortunes,  he  spread 
abroad  a  report  that  Florida  was  filled  with  gold  and  silver  mines, 
and  far  exceeded  in  riches  either  Mexico  or  Peru.  Nothing  else  was 
wanting  to  recruit  the  expedition  of  de  Soto.  Nobles  and  gentlemen 
flocked  to  his  standard.  Every  man  saw  himself  in  a  flowery  land, 
surrounded  by  beauteous  concubines,  with  nothing  to  do  but  enjoy 
himself  and  count  his  wealth. 

Such  was  the  rush  to  join  this  expedition  that  one  Gallego  sold 
his  houses,  vineyards  and  cornfields  near  Seville,  and  determined  to 
take  his  wife  with  him  to  the  new  world.  Many  others  committed 
similar  imprudences;  only  the  married  ones  wisely  left  their  spouses 
at  Havana.  A  band  of  Portuguese  fidalgos,  completely  armoured 
in  steel,  joined  the  expedition  under  one  Vasconcelos.  Ripartimientos 
of  Indians  were  to  be  conferred  upon  all  of  them,  and  they  looked 
forward  to  holding  high  wassail  in  the  halls  of  the  Floridian  caci- 
ques.    To  further  the  objects  of  this  expedition  and  secure  his  own 

'  Parkman,  14.  Harcia,  in  1611,  speaks  of  Quebec  as  a  part  of  Florida;  in  the  time 
of  Henry  II.,   of  France,  North  America  was  termed  Terra  Florida. 


264  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Fifth  of  the  expected  riches  of  North  America,  the  King  of  Spain 
conferred  upon  De  Soto  a  marquisate  and  the  title  of  Adelantado, 
with  an  estate  thirty  leagues  in  length  by  fifteen  in  breadth,  in  any 
part  of  the  conquered  country  which  he  might  choose.  Moreover, 
he  was  created  Governor  and  Captain-General  of  Florida  and  of  Cuba 
for  life.  The  command  of  Cuba  was  added  at  the  especial  request  of 
De  Soto,  who  foresaw  its  usefulness  in  fitting  out  and  provisioning 
his  armaments. 

In  1539  De  Soto  landed  at  the  Bay  of  Espirito  Santo,  now  Tampa 
Bay,  with  644  chosen  men  and  223  horses.  The  former  were  armed 
cap-a-pie,  and  they  brought  bloodhounds  to  hunt  the  Indians  and 
fetters  to  bind  them.  Shortly  after  landing  they  picked  up  Juan 
Ortiz,  a  survivor  of  Narvaez's  expedition,  who  had  lived  ten  years 
among  the  Indians.  Guided  by  him  and  the  account  of  Cabega  de 
Vaca,  they  marched  westward  through  the  present  states  of  Florida, 
Georgia,  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  reducing  the  hapless  Indians  to 
slavery,  ravishing  their  women,  destroying  their  offspring  and  laying 
waste  their  wretched  homes.  They  passed  over  many  of  the  gold- 
fields  or  mines  which  were  brought  to  light  during  the  nineteenth 
century,  but  failed  to  discover  them.  In  fact,  they  did  not  come  to 
delve  for  gold,  but  to  rob  it  from  the  Indians.  Their  eyes  were  not 
upon  the  ground  to  seek  for  either  placer-grains  or  quartz-croppings; 
they  were  lifted  afar  off,  to  the  Seven  cities  of  Cibola,  whose  count- 
less wealth  they  fancied  lay  ready  to  fall  before  their  arms;  they 
were  fixed  upon  the  South  Sea,  between  which  and  them  lay  an  em- 
pire filled  with  treasures.  In  sober  truth,  Cibola  was  but  a  few  rude 
villages,  2,000  miles  away  in  the  desert,  near  the  Rio  Gila,  and  with 
scarcely  gold  enough  to  pay  for  one  of  their  horses;  whilst  the  South 
Sea  was  yet  another  thousand  miles  farther  westward,  over  parched 
and  solitary  deserts,  which  still  remain  valueless  to  man. 

In  the  third  year  of  their  journey  they  crossed  the  ISIississippi 
river,  at  a  point  above  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas.  Advancing  west- 
ward, as  far  as  the  highlands  of  the  White  river,  in  the  present  In- 
dian Territory,  and  finding  neither  gold  nor  the  South  Sea,  but  only 
hostile  Indians,  and  the  vast  plains  which  fringe  the  desert,  they 
abandoned  all  hope,  and  returned  to  the  Mississippi.  Here  De  Soto 
died  of  dejection  and  fever,  and  they  buried  him  in  the  turbid  waters 
of  the  great  stream.  Selecting  a  more  southerly  course,  a  portion  of 
his  command,  under  Alvarado,  attempted  to  reach  Mexico,  but  were 
foiled  by  the  rigours  of  the  march  and  the  hostility  of  the  Indians. 
Returning  to   the  Mississippi,  they  constructed   seven    brigantines, 


^  NORTH    AMERICA.  265 

upon  which  they  embarked  themselves  and  floated  tlown  the  stream. 
Escaping  many  perils,  they  finally  reached  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  which 
they  coasted  to  the  Rio  Panuco,  where  there  was  a  Spanish  settle- 
ment. The  survivors  numbered  but  311,  half  their  original  comple- 
ment having  succumbed  to  the  hardships  of  the  journey.  Between 
the  expedition  of  De  Soto  and  tluit  of  Ribaut,  next  to  be  mentioned, 
there  were  two  other  Spanish  expeditions.  In  1547  Balbasteo,  and 
in  1559  Arellano,  attempted  the  conquest  of  Florida,  the  latter  with 
1,500  soldiers  and  a  large  complement  of  friars;  but  neither  arms 
nor  religion  could  subdue  the  indomitable  natives. 

As  yet,  the  Spaniards  had  not  planted  a  colony  in  America  north 
of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico;  indeed,  their  expeditions  had  really  no  such 
object  in  view.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  promises,  expressed 
or  implied,  in  their  contracts  with  the  Crown,  their  real  object  was 
to  scour  the  country  for  such  gold  as  the  Indians  already  possessed. 
This  is  established  beyond  a  doubt,  both  from  their  arrangements 
with  one  another,  their  mode  of  procedure,  the  enquiries  they  made 
of  the  Indians,  their  conduct  towards  them,  and  their  resolute  con- 
tempt for  agriculture. 

As  with  the  Spanish  Catholics,  so  was  it  with  the  French  Hugue- 
nots, who  next  took  up  the  task  of  exploring  North  America.  Reli- 
gion had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  their  want  of  success.  They 
went  to  America,  not  to  found  a  religion,  nor  to  plant  colonies,  but 
to  find  gold.  Their  leaders  are  represented  as  mere  adventurers, 
who  cared  nothing  for  religion,  except  to  use  it  as  a  cloak.*  For  the 
most  part,  they  consisted  of  men  "on  whom  Faith  sat  but  lightly 
and  whose  real  advantage  lay  in  adventure,  commotion  and  change. " " 
Among  them  were  the  younger  sons  and  other  neglected  kinsmen  of 
the  Huguenot  seigneurs,  whose  triumph  in  France,  under  whatever 
name,  it  is  contended  would  have  involved  the  redistribution  of  all 
the  wealth  of  that  country.*  There  were  no  stock-herders,  no  agri- 
culturists, no  mechanics  among  them,  except  such  few  of  the  latter 
class  as  were  needed  to  forge  their  arms,  or  patch  their  boots.  Says 
Parkman,  43:     "There  were  no  tillers  of  the  soil.      Indeed,  agricul- 

*  Many  of  them  renounced  their  faith  when  it  suited  their  purposes  ;  amongst  them 
Villegagnon  who  commanded  the  Huguenots  in  Brazil.  *  I'arkman,  29. 

•  "  The  adventurers  had  found  not  conquest  and  gold,  but  a  dull  exile  in  a  petty 
fort.  .  .  .  The  young  nobles,  of  whom  there  were  many,  were  volunteers  who 
had  paid  their  own  e.xpenses  in  expectation  of  a  golden  har\-est,  and  they  chafed  in 
impatience  and  disgust.  .  .  .  The  religious  element  in  the  colony  was  evitk-ntly 
subordinate;  the  adventurers  thought  more  of  their  fortune  than  their  faith."  I'ark- 
man,  53,  54,  59,  60. 


266  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

turists  were  rare  among  the  Huguenots,  for  the  dull  peasants  who 
guided  the  plough  clung  with  blind  tenacity  to  the  ancient  faith. 
Adventurous  gentlemen,  reckless  soldiers,  discontented  tradesmen, 
all  keen  for  novelty  and  heated  with  dreams  of  wealth,"  composed 
their  numbers. 

An  expedition  of  this  character,  under  command  of  Jean  Ribaut 
of  Dieppe,  sailed  from  Havre  and  reached  the  coast  of  Florida  in 
1562.  On  a  beautiful  morning  in  May  they  landed  upon  the  banks 
of  the  St.  John's  river.  The  land  was  fertile,  the  climate  mild,  the 
river  teemed  with  fish,  the  woods  were  filled  with  deer,  and  the  In- 
dians were  friendly  and  hospitable.  Did  the  Huguenots  forthwith 
break  the  earth  and  plant  seeds  ?  Not  at  all.  .  Their  thought  was  not 
of  subsistence,  but  of  gold.  They  asked  one  Indian  whence  he  had 
obtained  a  great  pearl  that  hung  suspended  from  his  neck ;  and  of 
another  they  enquired  for  "the  wonderful  land  of  Cibola  with  its 
Seven  Cities  and  its  untold  riches,"  and  were  facetiously  informed 
that  it  was  distant  but  twenty  days'  journey  by  water.  In  June,  Ri- 
baut returned  to  France,  leaving  thirty  adventurers  behind  him,  to 
establish  a  colony.  In  the  course  of  a  few  months  their  forays  and 
cruelties  had  alienated  the  Indians,  who  left  them  to  starve  or  return 
to  their  own  land.  They  choosed  the  latter  alternative,  fed  upon  hu- 
man flesh  during  the  voyage,  and  finally  fell  prisoners  to  the  English. 

In  156^,  three  vessels  and  several  hundred  adventurers  from  France, 
under  Rene  de  Laudonniere,  reached  Florida.  After  building  a  fort, 
which  they  named  Caroline,  at  St.  John's  Bluff,  on  the  river  St.  John, 
they  set  about  hunting  for  gold.  By  this  time  the  Indians  had  come 
to  understand  the  Europeans  so  well,  that,  lacking  weapons  with 
which  to  destroy  them  at  once,  they  employed  artifice  to  wear  them 
out.  One  chief  named  Satouriona,  secured  the  alliance  of  the  French 
against  a  rival  named  Outina,  by  representing  that  the  latter  barred 
the  way  to  great  deposits  of  gold.  Arriving  in  the  country  of  Outina, 
and  learning  from  Mollua,  a  subordinate  chief  of  the  latter,  that 
Outina's  men  wore  armour  of  gold  and  silver  plate,  and  that  it  was 
Potanou,  a  rival  of  Outina,  and  not  Outina  himself,  who  barred  the 
way  to  the  gold  and  gems  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains,  the  perfid- 
ious Huguenots  deserted  the  cause  of  Satouriona,  and  embraced  that 
of  Outina.  Lured  by  a  promise  of  the  wiley  Mollua,  of  a  heap  of  gold 
and  silver,  two  feet  high,  the  Frenchmen  marched  upon  Potanou's 
town  and  put  its  whole  population  to  the  sword.  They  found  nothing 
to  satisfy  their  cupidity."     Disappointed  in  their  hope  of  spoil,  they 

'  Parkman,  53,  60. 


NOKIH     AMK.klCA.  267 

now  turned  upon  their  allies,  who,  escaping  into  the  woods,  left  them, 
like  their  predecessors,  to  starvation. 

In  September,  1564,  a  portion  of  Laudonnicre's  command  stole  his 
two  pinnaces,  and  set  forth  on  a  piratical  expedition  to  the  West  In- 
dies. They  took  a  small  Spanish  vessel  off  the  coast  of  Cuba,  but 
were  soon  compelled  by  famine  to  put  into  Havana,  where,  to  gain 
favour  with  the  authorities,  they  represented  Florida  to  be  a  land 
full  of  gold,  and  treacherously  denounced  their  comrades,  who  now 
formed  its  only  European  occupants.  Meanwhile,  the  minority  of 
Laudonnicre's  command,  having  sought  in  vain  for  the  Appalachian 
gold-fields,  mutinied,  built  two  small  vessels,  abandoned  Laudonniere, 
and  started  down  the  coast  to  plunder  a  Spanish  church  and  obtain 
provisions  by  piracy.  They  captured  and  plundered  a  brigantine  and 
a  caravel  near  Cuba,  and  looted  a  village  in  Jamaica.  Subsequently 
they  captured  another  vessel  with  rich  booty,  but  were  soon  after- 
wards attacked  by  the  Spaniards,  and  all  but  twenty-si.x  were  killed. 
These  escaped  to  Florida,  where  Laudonniere  put  them  to  death. 
While  these  events  were  transpiring,  one  La  Roche  Ferriere  was  sent 
by  Laudonniere  to  spy  out  the  country  of  the  Indios.  He  pretended 
to  have  reached  the  mysterious  mountains  of  Appalache,  from  which 
he  brought,  among  other  things,  arrows  tipped  with  gold  and  wedges 
of  a  curious  green-stone,  perhaps  jade."  Another  spy  named  Grotaut 
reached  the  dominions  of  Hostaqua,  a  chief  who  ruled  three  or  four 
thousand  warriors,  and  who  promised  with  the  aid  of  100  arquebus- 
iers  to  conquer  all  the  tribes  of  the  mountains  and  subject  them  and 
their  gold-fields  to  the  French.  A  third  offshoot  of  this  party,  a  man 
named  Pierre  Gamble,  made  his  way  to  the  island  of  Edelano,  where 
he  became  the  favourite  of  the  chief  and  married  his  daughter.  The 
Indians,  however,  afterwards  killed  him. 

During  the  winter  of  1564-5  certain  Indians  from  the  vicinity  of 
Cape  Canaveral  brought  in  two  Spaniards,  wrecked  in  1550  within 
the  domains  of  King  Calos,  near  the  south-western  extremity  of  the 
Floridian  peninsular.  They  reported  that  "in  one  of  his  villages 
was  a  pit  si.\  feet  deep  and  as  wide  as  a  hogshead,  filled  with  treasure 
gathered  from  Spanish  wrecks  in  adjacent  reefs  and  keys. "  '  Although, 
for  a  wonder,  Laudonniere  did  not  send  a  force  to  plunder  this  treas- 
ure, he  again  listened  to  the  wiles  of  Outina  and  his  promises  of  the 
gold  deposites  of  Appalache,  and  sent  another  expedition  to  raid  the 
villages  of  Potanou.  The  arquebuse  did  its  work,  producing  the 
usual  panic,  slaughter,  and  plentiful  harvest  of  scalps;  but  no  gold 
•  Parkman.  62-8.  *  Ibid,  68-<). 


268  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

was  found,  and  the  thirty  Huguenot  bravos,  who  composed  the  French 
part  of  the  expedition,  returned  to  the  camp  in  disgust. 

Famine  reduced  them  to  the  necessity  of  eating  snakes,  until,  on 
on  the  3rd  of  August,  1565,  they  were  relieved  by  an  English  squad- 
ron under  Captain  (afterwards  Sir  John)  Hawkins,  who  put  into  the 
St.  John's  river  for  water.  This  adventurer,  whose  occupation  at  that 
time  was  capturing  negros  in  Africa  and  selling  them  to  the  Span- 
iards in  Hispaniola,  offered  the  Frenchmen  a  free  passage  to  France; 
but  this  offer,  much  as  it  pleased  his  men,  Laudonniere  felt  constrained 
to  decline.  On  the  28th  of  August,  the  adventurers  were  again  suc- 
coured, this  time  by  Ribaut,  who  had  been  to  France  and  returned. 
But  their  joy  at  this  relief  was  of  short  duration,  for  on  the  4th  Sep- 
tember, 1565,  a  Spanish  fleet,  under  Pedro  Menendez  de  Aviles,  en- 
tered the  harbour  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  entire  French 
force. 

The  Spanish  expedition  had  resulted,  in  part,  from  the  account 
given  of  the  riches  of  Florida  by  the  Huguenots  who  had  escaped 
to  Havana  during  the  previous  year.  It  originally  consisted  of  34 
vessels  (one  of  966  tons),  and  of  2,646  persons;  and  it  cost  a  million 
of  ducats.'"  Of  this  fleet  about  one-half  reached  the  St.  John's  river. 
After  chasing  Ribaut's  squadron  and  his  succoured  Frenchmen  out 
of  the  harbour,  Menendez  landed  and  built  a  fort,  around  which 
afterwards  grew  the  town  of  St.  Augustine.  Here  he  was  about  to  be 
attacked  by  Ribaut,  but  a  storm  arose  and  caused  the  French  to 
withdraw.  Menendez  then  marched  overland,  captured  Fort  Caro- 
line, and  put  its  defenders  to  the  sword,  only  a  few  escaping  to 
a  French  vessel  commanded  by  Ribaut's  son.  Returning  to  St. 
Augustine,  Menendez  learned  that  all  of  Ribaut's  ships  had  been 
wrecked.  Following  the  coast,  Menendez  came  upon  the  crews  of 
two  of  their  vessels,  numbering  in  all  about  500  souls.  These,  with 
Ribaut  at  their  head,  were  nearly  all  butchered  by  the  Spaniards, 
Menendez  alleging  by  way  of  extenuation, that  had  the  French  been 
spared,  they  would  have  made  their  way  by  the  river  St.  Lawrence 
to  the  MoUucas  and  other  parts  of  the  East  Indies;  and  thus  robbed 
Spain  of  the  valuable  mines  of  Zacatecas  and  St.  Martin !  "  He  seems, 
to  have  forgotten  that  those  w'hom  he  spared,  on  condition  that  they 
became  Catholics,  might  equally  well  have  carried  out  this  fantastic 
design. '' 

"*  Menendez'  dispatch  to  the  King  of  Spain,  cited  in  Parkman,  135-6. 
'^  1   .ose  whom   Menendez  s-pared  seemed  to  be  of  the  third  portion  of  Ribaut's 
shipwrecked  command.      Parkman,  137.  '•  Ibid,  144-6. 


NOR  111    AMKklCA.  269 

Turning  frt)m  the  French,  to  the  Indians,  Menendez  endeavoured 
to  follow  up  the  scheme  of  conquest  and  plunder  which  had  been 
planned  by  his  predecessors;  but  the  Indians,  taught  by  a  bitter  ex- 
perience that  the  whites  were  not  to  be  trusted,  retired  before  them 
wherever  they  went.    "The  Spaniards  drove  them  from  their  cabins, 
ravished  their  wives  and  daughters,  and  killed  their  children."  ♦  ♦  * 
"  Friendship  had  changed  to  aversion,  aversion  to  hatred,  hatred  ti> 
exterminating  war.   The  forest  paths  were  beset,  stragglers  were  cut 
off,   and  woe  to  the   Spaniard  who  should    venture  after  nightfall 
beyond  call  of  the  outposts."     Under  such  circumstances  the  con- 
quest of  North  America  by  the  Spaniards  and  French,  like  that  of 
South  America  by  the  Portuguese,  met  with  little  success.      Unlike 
the  Indians  of  the  West  India  Islands,  Mexico  and   Peru,  who  were 
hemmed  in  by  the  sea,  or  the  mountains,  and  could  not  escape  froan 
the  fire-arms  and  the  bloodhounds  of  the  invaders,  the  Indians.  ©C 
what  are  now  Brazil  and  the  United  States,  had  a  vast  open  contirrenL 
behind  them,  whose  trackless  forests  afforded  an  ever-ready  refuge:. 
The  gold-hunters  could  occupy  the  coasts  of  these  countries;but 
never  the  interior,  and  this  fact  has  much  to  do  not  only  witli  blie 
history  of  the  precious  metals  but  with  the  conquest  and  civilization, 
of  America.      Had  the  interior  been  accessible  to  the  invaders  it  can: 
scarcely  be  doubted — what  with  their  thorough  knowledge  of  mining 
and  the  one  absorbing  object  of  their  numerous  expeditions — that 
the  vast  subsecjuent  production  of  gold  in  Brazil  and  in  the  Appala- 
chian  range  and  in  California,  and  of  silver    in   Nevada,  Arizona,, 
Utah,  Colorado,  etc.,  would  in  great  measure  have  been  thrown  upon: 
the  world  during  a   single   century  and  long  before  Portugal  and 
Brazil  were  subjected  to  the  influence  of  England,  or  North  America 
had  beeen  colonized  by  Anglo-Saxon  communities. 

In  1567  a  French  adventurer,  named  Dominique  de  Gourges,  sailed 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Ciiarente,  with  180  men,  on  a  voyage  of  plun- 
der.'* He  first  visited  the  Rio  del  Oro,  whose  name  probably  indi- 
cates the  object  of  his  voyage.  From  thence  he  went  to  Cape  Blanco, 
where  the  Portuguese  beat  him  off.  Cape  Verde  was  his  next  stop- 
ping place;  then  the  West  India  Islands,  at  many  of  which  he  landed 
in  quest  of  plunder.  Touching  at  Hispaniola,  he  bore  away  for  Flor- 
ida, where  he  landed  and  made  an  alliance  with  the  Indian  chief 
Satouriona,  against  the  Spaniards.  Attacking  the  the  Spanish  forts 
with  his  combined  force  of  pirates  and  savages  he  took  them  all  by 

'*  Some  authors  say  that  his  object  was  vengcnce  upon  the  murderers  of  the  French 
Huguenots  in  Florida;  but  it  seems  that  De  Gourges  was  a  Catholic.    Parkman,  140. 


270  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

surprise  or  assault,  put  their  defenders  to  deatli,  and  sacked  the  set- 
tlements of  all  they  contained.  Then  impiously  thanking  the  Creator 
for  His  part  in  this  bloody  work,  he  returned  to  France,  hoping  to 
gain  pardon  for  his  numerous  offences  by  reason  of  the  part  he  had 
taken  in  this  last  exploit  But  the  king  turned  his  back  upon  him, 
and  he  retired  into  obscurity,  from  which  he  emerged  a  few  years 
later,  only  to  die  of  a  sudden  illness  at  Tours. 

Menendez,  who  was  in  Spain  when  De  Gourges  captured  his  forts, 
afterwards  returned  to  Florida,  and  re-established  the  Spanish  au- 
thority on  that  peninsular.  With  certain  interruptions  this  govern- 
ment lasted  until  1821.  But  "  Florida  "  was  no  longer  held  as  a  gold- 
hunting  province.  The  enmity  between  the  Spaniards  and  Frenchmen, 
and  the  gold  forays  of  both,  had  taught  the  Indians  that  the  whites, 
whom  they  had  at  first  believed  to  be  demi-gods  and  Children  of  the 
Sun,  were  only  a  set  of  rapacious  adventurers  better  armed  than 
themselves.  They  had  also  learned  how  to  avoid  them.  Left  to  their 
own  devices,  the  Spaniards  found  it  necessary  to  either  cultivate  the 
soil,  or  abandon  the  settlements.  Choosing  the  former  alternative, 
they  gave  up  their  vain  efforts  to  plunder  gold  from  the  natives,  and 
established  missions  and  small  colonies  in  the  most  favoured  vales  near 
the  coast,  beyond  the  strict  precincts  of  which  they  seldom  strayed. 
Their  principal  settlement  was  at  Saint  Augustine.  The  chronicles 
of  this  obscure  colony  during  the  two-and-a-half  centuries  which  pre- 
ceded its  cession  to  the  United  States,  furnishes  an  interesting  chap- 
ter to  the  history  of  civilization.'* 

In  1578,  Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  conferred  upon  Sir  Humph- 
rey Gilbert,  the  half  brother  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  the  right  to  make 
discoveries,  and  search  for  gold  and  silver  in  North  America,  upon 
condition  of  his  paying  to  the  Crown  one-fifth  of  all  of  such  metals 
as  he  might  obtain.  In  1583,  Sir  Humphrey  sailed  from  England  with 
five  vessels  and  260  men  and  landed  in  Nova  Scotia.  The  ancient 
cavities  on  the  seashore  near  Lunenberg,  called  the  "Ovens,"  are 
believed  to  have  been  dug  by  these  adventurers  in  search  of  gold; 

'•*  The  following  strange  paragraph  appeared  in  a  Peoria  (Illinois)  newspaper,  dated 
January  ii,  1897  :  "  The  hull  of  an  old  Spanish  gunboat  has  been  uncovered  on  the 
farm  of  Chas.  Brown,  in  Renville  Count)',  Minnesota,  and  hundreds  of  people  have 
been  flocking  to  the  place.  Joseph  Bagne  struck  the  vessel  while  digging  a  well,  and 
has  since  completely  uncovered  it.  Its  armament  comprised  five  cannon  and  two 
mortars.  Cannon  balls  and  bomb  shells  were  found  in  large  numbers.  The  impres- 
sion is  that  the  boat  was  run  up  into  that  region  about  the  year  1600,  when  a  much 
larger  proportion  of  the  country  was  under  water  than  now.  The  gunboat  was  found 
directly  on  Birch  Coolie  Creek,  a  branch  of  the  Minnesota  River,  which  creek  at  that 
time  was  no  doubt  a  navigable  stream."  Upon  making  enquiries  in  the  vicinity  of 
this  alleged  find,  the  author  ascertained  that  it  was  a  mere  hoax. 


NORTH    AMKklCA.  27  I 

with  what  results  are  not  recorceti.  Mr.  Win.  A'Beckett,  in  his  Life 
of  this  hero,  says:  "He  had  carried  out  with  him  a  Saxon  miner, 
who  pretended  to  have  discovered  a  very  ricli  silver  mine  on  the 
coast  and  dug  up  some  ore,  which  seems  fully  to  have  convinced  Sir 
Humphrey  that  the  means  of  wealth  were  within  his  reach.  Misfor- 
tune, however,  was  impending  over  him.  His  largest  ship  was  lost 
in  a  storm  with  all  the  crew,  excei)t  twelve  and  his  miner,  and  the 
ore  perished  with  her."  In  their  subsequent  expeditions  to  North 
America,  the  English,  profiting  by  the  losses  which  it  became  evi- 
dent Spain  had  sustained  in  her  mad  pursuit  of  the  precious  metals, 
turned  their  energies  to  the  establishment  of  agricultural  colonies 
and  the  monopolization  of  their  trade.  Says  "The  Constitution  and 
Present  State  of  Great  Britain,"  London  (anonymous),  1758,  pp. 
-33-5-  "^Vhile  trade  is  thus  carried  on  between  Great  Britain  and 
her  colonies,  both  parties  must  grow  powerful;  but  should  a  mine  of 
gold  be  found  in  such  colonies,  however  desirable  that  metal  may 
be,  I  should  dread  the  consequences.  .  .  .  Spain,  for  instance, 
though  she  has  possessed  herself  of  the  silver  mines  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  is  evidently  a  loser  by  the  bargain;  for  these  provinces  have 
drained  the  Mother  Country  of  her  children  and  left  her  plains  un- 
cultivated and  her  vines  unpruned. " 

In  1606  Captain  John  Smith,  adventurer,  mercenary,  and  gold- 
hunter,  was  employed  by  a  London  Company  which  had  obtained  a 
charter  to  colonize  Virginia  and  search  it  for  gold.  Smith,  having 
been  placed  in  command  of  the  colony,  failed  of  his  mission,  while  his 
employers  reprimanded  him  for  not  realizing  their  expectations  of  a 
golden  harvest.  The  only  outcome  of  this  expedition  contemplated 
by  its  projectors  was  the  discovery  of  some  gold  in  the  Appalachian 
range.  The  hostility  of  the  Indians,  however,  barred  the  way  to  the 
placers  and  these  were  left  to  be  discovered  and  worked  at  a  later 
date.  Yet  the  enterprise  was  not  wholly  without  fruit;  for  it  gave 
rise  to  the  beautiful  romance  of  Pocahontas. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


THE    PLUNDER    OF    AFRICA. 


Remote  antiquity  of  the  gold  trade  with  Cephala  or  Sofala — Early  voyages — Punic, 
Arabian,  Greek  and  Roman  navigators — Repeated  openings  of  the  Suez  Canal  con- 
nected with  the  gold  trade — Necho — Xerxes — Voyages  of  Hanno,  Eudoxus,  Agathar- 
cides  and  Arrian — Land  expeditions  of  the  Romans  under  Augustus,  Nero  and  Anton- 
inus Pius — Arabian  expeditions  to  interior  Africa — Their  influence  upon  the  natives, 
whom  they  refrained  from  enslaving — Gold  trade  of  the  Soudan — Mines  of  Guan- 
garu — Kano — Timbuctoo — Ghanah — Bornu — Mines  of  Oungara — Congo  "Free"  State 
— Guinea — Gold  Coast — Voyages  of  the  Norsemen,  Portuguese,  Dutch  and  English — 
El  Mina — Buncatee's  Golden  Stool — The  British  African  Company — Ashanti — Gold 
product  of  the  West  Coast — Native  aversion  to  gold  mining — Voyage  of  De  Gama — 
The  Zambesi  gold  region,  or  Sofala — Mozambique — Melinda — The  Arabians  are 
driven  away  by  the  Portuguese,  who  seize  upon  the  mines — Extraordiioary  prepara- 
tions to  exploit  them — Operations  of  Alboquerque  in  the  Red  Sea^Barreto's  Expe- 
dition to  the  Zambesi — Ancient  towers  of  Zamboe — "  King  Solomon's  Mines  " — Pro- 
duce of  Sofala — Mining  districts — Ruin  of  Portuguese  Power — Recent  discovery  of 
gold  in  the  Transvaal — Produce  of  the  mines — Practical  enslavement  of  the  natives  by 
the  English  mine-owners — Sacreligious  coins — Desecration  of  the  Sabbath — Boer 
discouragement  of  mining— The  Boer  War  and  Closure  of  the  mines, 

AFTER  closely  examining  the  narratives  of  Nearchus,  Agathar- 
cides  and  Arrian,  concerning  the  ancient  trade  down  the  coasts 
of  the  Red  Sea  and  Eastern  Africa,  Dr.  William  Vincent,  Dean 
of  Westminster,  was  of  opinion  that  the  Arabs,  whom  some  of  the 
Greek  writers  called  Phoenicians,  had  been  from  time  immemorial 
in  possession  of  the  entire  coast  down  to  the  "  Southern  Horn,"  and 
that  they  carried  on  a  traffic  in  gold-dust  and  ivory  with  Rhapta  or 
Quiloa,  Melinda,  Mozambique  and  the  great  gold  region  of  Cephala, 
or  Sofala.  An  opinion  from  so  eminent  a  source,  and  expressed  with 
the  deliberation  evinced  in  his  work  on  the  Peripli  of  the  ancient  navi- 
gators, is  entitled  to  the  highest  consideration.  It  also  suggests  that 
Ctesias,  when  he  alluded  to  "one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
Cynocephalians  "  meant  the  population  of  the  Arabian  emporia  of  the 
south-eastern  coasts,  and  not  ''dog-headed  monkeys,"  as  too  literal 
an  interpretation  of  the  Greek  term  led  some  writers  to  suppose;  for 


THE    PLUNDER    OF    AFRICA. 


73 


how  could  anyone  pretend  to  number  the  monkeys  in  a  wild  and  re- 
mote region!     Be  this  as  it  may,  the  periods  at  which  the  voyages 
of  the  Greek   navigators   were  made,  too  closely  coincide  with  the 
various  openings  of  the  Suez  Canal,  to  leave  any  doubt  that  they 
were  connected;  moreover,  that  such  openings  would  hardly  have 
been  made  at  all  had  there  not  been  a  large  and  profitable  trade  with 
the  eastern  coasts  of  Africa  to  support  then;  for,  except  as  to  the 
single  voyage  of  Eudoxus,  neither  the  Greeks  nor  Romans  are  known 
to  have  ever  attempted  to  trade  directly  with  India  or  China.     This 
trade  was  in  fact  always  in  the  hands  of  the  Phoenicians  or  Arabs; 
nor  could  it  have  been  conducted  by  any  nation  not  having  control 
of  the  Arabian  coasts  and  emporia.     The  trade  with  the  eastern 
coasts  of  Africa  could  alone  have  been  sufficient  to  warrant  the  open- 
ing, and  the  great  expense  of  keeping  open,  from  the  drifting  sands 
of  Egypt,  the  water-way  known  to  us  as  the  Suez  Canal;  and  such 
trade  with  the  eastern  coasts  must  have  included  the  gold  regions  of 
Cephala;  for  without  that  it  would  have  been  too  trivial  in  extent  to 
warrant  so  mighty  an  undertaking.    From  the  Gulf  of  Aden  to  Rhapta 
or  Quiloa  the  coast  was  poor  and  offered  but  little  inducement  to 
trade;  but  at  Melinda,  Mozambique  and  Sofala,  it  was  rich  and  lucra- 
tive.   At  a  later  aera  the  Arab  dwellings  at  these  places  were  made  of 
hewn  stone,  their  gardens  filled  with  rare  Indian  plants,  and  their 
fields  yielded  a  bounteous  harvest  of  corn  and  fruits,  while  their  pas- 
tures abounded  with  great  numbers  of  horned  cattle  and  other  domes- 
tic animals.   They  traded  with  Aden  and  Ormuz,  with  Cambaye  and 
with  Calicut.     The  friendly  natives  of  Africa  brought  to  their  marts 
abundant  supplies  of  gold-dust   which  they  gladly   exchanged  for 
Levantine  implements,  wares  and  ornaments.     The   iron   works  of 
Melinda  and  the  gold  mines  of  Cephala  were  at  once  the  monuments 
of  their  art  and  the  sources  of  their  opulence.    Such  must  also  have 
been  the  condition  of  this  trade  when  the  Phoenicians  conducted  it; 
a  trade  too  great  to  be  wholly  concealed  and  yet  too  valuable  to  be 
made  public.     Both  the  Phoenicians  and  Arabs  kept  the  knowledge 
of  it  to  themselves;  even  the  channels  by  which  it  was  reached  were 
clothed  in  mystcr)'  and  verbal  perversion.    Cephala  was  a  sealed  land, 
and  the  seal  was  only  broken  when  Alexander  destroyed  Tyre  and 
transferred  the  trade  of  Arabia  and  the  eastern  coasts  of  Africa  to 
that  New  Emporium  upon  which  he  conferred  his  own  name.    It  was 
broken  again  when  De  Gama  rounded  the  Cape. 

We  have  now  to  follow  in  detail  such  accounts  of  the  Greek  and 


274  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Roman  expeditions  into  the  gold  regions  of  Africa  as  time  and  a 
jealous  circumspection  have  permitted  to  reach  us. 

About  the  year  B.  C.  6io,  Necho,  King  of  Egypt,  re-opened  the 
ancient  Suez  Canal  of  Rameses  II.,  and  admitted  a  Phoenician  fleet 
from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Red  Sea,  bound  probably  for  the  gold 
regions  of  south-eastern  Africa.  Three  years  afterwards  this  fleet, 
or  a  portion  of  it,  returned  to  Egypt  by  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  hav- 
ing meanwhile  circumnavigated  the  entire  continent  of  Africa.  The 
Phoenicians  said  nothing  about  the  gold  regions,  but  reported  that, 
having  made  a  settlement  on  the  coast,  they  ran  short  of  provisions 
and  were  obliged  to  plant  seed  in  order  to  secure  a  supply  of  corn. 
They  added  that  this  planting  had  to  be  done  in  autumn,  a  fact  pecu- 
liar to  the  Southern  hemisphere,  where  the  seasons  are  the  reverse  of 
those  in  the  Northern;  and  that  as  they  afterwards  proceeded  on 
their  voyage,  they  had  seen  the  sun  on  their  right  hand,  another  fact 
peculiar  to  the  course  they  claimed  to  have  run,  and  which,  together 
with  the  one  previously  mentioned,  stamps  this  narrative  with  the 
strongest  probability.  Herodotus,  Mel.,  42,  and  Commentary  of  Dr. 
Larcher. 

The  grounds  upon  which  this  voyage  have  been  discredited  are  un- 
sound. These  are  "the  successful  agriculture  of  the  strangers  in 
unknown  climates  and  new  soils";  the  improbability  that  "seeds  of 
the  temperate  zone  yield  their  increase  between  the  tropics,"  /.  e. 
between  Northern  Egypt  and  the  Mozambique;  and  the  improbabi- 
ity  of  "sailing  round  Africa  in  three  summers  to  amuse  the  curio- 
sity of  a  King  of  Egypt. "  Gibbon's  Treatise  on  the  Meridional  Line. 
To  these  strictures  it  is  to  be  replied  that:  considering  the  numbers 
of  the  fleet,  the  fact  that  it  was  conducted  by  Phoenicians,  who  were 
essentially  a  mining  people  and  had  already  abundance  of  mining 
experience  on  the  coasts  of  Greece,  Italy  and  Spain,  and  their  ad- 
mission through  so  costly  a  channel  as  the  canal  of  Suez,  it  is  unlikely 
that  the  expedition  was  organized  merely  for  purposes  of  curiosity; 
that  a  knowledge  of  the  gold  regions  of  south-eastern  Africa  could 
hardly  fail  to  have  reached  Egypt  overland,  as,  at  a  subsequent  date, 
that  of  Peru  reached  Pizarro  in  Darien,  and  that  the  Phoenicians 
had  doubtless  been  sent  to  work  them ;  that,  as  Gibbon  himself  affirms 
in  another  part  of  the  same  Essay  concerning  Zanguebar,  and  as.a  sub- 
sequent experience  overwhelmingly  testifies,  corn  will  and  does  grow 
upon  immense  regions  "between  the  tropics."  Says  Macgreggor, 
111,332:  "Mozambique  and  Sofala  (Cephala)  have  excellent  soils 
which  produce  (where  cultivated)  indigo,  sugar-cane,    rice,  wheat. 


THE    PLUNDER    OK    AFRICA.  275 

potatoes,  beans,  maize,  all  kinds  of  fruits;  and  in  a  wild  state, 
oranges,  lemons,  oleaginous  plants  and  trees,  the  vine,  mulberry  and 
olive, "  etc.  The  experience  of  the  Boers  in  the  Transvaal  and  Orange 
River  Republics  abundantly  confirms  this  opinion. 

If  the  Phoenicians  ever  preserved  a  more  minute  account  of  this 
celebrated  voyage,  that  account  must  have  perished  when  all  their 
literature  was  destroyed  with  the  cities  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  by  Alex- 
ander, in  the  4th  century  B.  C.  But  it  is  not  likely  that  any  record 
was  kept  of  it,  because  they  made  it  a  practice,  from  motives  of 
policy,  to  conceal  the  destination  of  their  fleets  and  the  sources  of 
their  commercial  wealth.  The  Phoenicians  have  left  us  no  records  of 
their  voyages  to  the  coasts  of  Southern  and  Western  Europe,  and  yet 
we  admit  upon  precisely  the  same  testimony  as  is  herein  adduced 
and  offered,  that  between  the  i6th  and  loth  centuries  B.  C,  they  dis- 
covered, colonized  and  worked  mines  of  gold  and  other  metals  all 
along  the  Mediterranean  and  Atlantic,  from  Thrace  to  Britain. 

As  going  to  show  that  the  early  maritime  voyages  were  made  rather 
for  gold  than  motives  of  geographical  discovery,  and  that  where  the 
former  was  not  to  be  obtained,  the  latter  was  always  neglected  or 
abandoned,  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  from  the  period  of  this  Phoenician 
voyage  to  that  of  Vasco  de  Gama,  the  only  portion  of  the  African 
coast  never  visited  was  that  which  was  non-auriferous,  namely,  from 
Guinea  on  the  West  around  the  Cape  to  Caffraria  on  the  East.  It 
can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  if  the  gold  placers  had  extended  south 
of  either  Guinea  on  the  West  or  Sofala  on  the  East  coasts,  they 
would  have  been  followed  and  colonized  by  the  nation  who  first 
traced  them  from  the  North  to  those  limits. 

Some  corroboration  of  the  Phoenician  voyages  to  Caffraria  is  found 
in  the  descriptions  and  representations  of  the  unicorn  (the  one-horned 
rhinoceros  or  ndzoo-dzoo  of  Caffraria),  which  prevailed  among  the 
early  Hebrews  and  Persians.  The  rocks  of  Cambeboand  Bambo,  in 
Caffraria,  were  also  found  covered  with  ancient  representations  of 
these  animals.'  Further  corroboration  of  these  voyages  is  found  in 
the  extensive  ruins  covered  with  inscriptions  in  an  unknown  lan- 
guage, which  were  discovered  in  Batua";  and  in  the  narrative  of 
Thomas  Lopez,  during  his  voyage  to  India,  which  records  that  the 
inhabitants  of  Sofala  boasted  of  the  possession  of  certain  ancient 
books* — a  significant  circumstance  when  it  is  remembered  that  the 
art  of  writing,  which  was  brought  into  Europe  by  the  Phoenicians, 
was  entirely  unknown  to  the  native  African  races, 
'  Maltc-Brun,  iii,  70.  *  Ibid.,  in.  Si;  Morse's Geog.,  il,  537.         ^  Morse,  11,  537. 


276  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

While  it  must  be  admitted  that  these  evidences  possess  some  value, 
we  do  not  as  yet  insist  upon  their  being  regarded  as  conclusive.  But 
there  are  still  other  evidences  on  the  subject.  The  Caffres  have  a 
tradition  that  their  ancestors  came  from  some  eastern  country.  The 
Batuans,  a  neighbouring  nation,  whose  capital  ^vas  Lattakoo,  were 
acquainted  with  metallurgy.  They  could  smelt  copper  and  iron,  and 
make  brass-wire,  steel,  knives,  needles,  earrings  and  bracelets.  They 
were  also  familiar  with  the  art  of  tanning  leather.''  Their  complexion 
is  not  black,  but  brown ;  their  hair  is  straight,  their  manners  are  mild, 
and  their  language  sweet  and  sonorous.^  Above  all,  the  gold-mines 
themselves  exhibit  evidences  in  every  direction  of  having  been  sys- 
tematically worked  by  some  ancient  people  who  had  many  more  uses 
and  a  far  more  eager  desire  for  gold  than  any  of  the  native  races." 

About  B.  C.  482,  Sataspes,  a  Persian  noble,  who  had  been  banished 
from  the  court  of  his  kinsman  Xerxes,  B.  C.  485-65,  organized  in 
Egypt,  which  at  that  period  was  a  Persian  province,  a  fleet  of  Phoe- 
nician ships,  to  circumnavigate  Africa  from  West  to  East.  This 
fleet  passed  through  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  and  sailed  down  the 
African  coast  as  far  as  Cape  Bogador,  where,  finding  no  gold,  and 
meeting  with  vast  masses  of  floating  seaweed,  which  threatened  to 
interrupt  the  further  progress  of  the  vessels,  Sataspes  turned  back 
and  eventually  reached  Persia,  where  he  was  crucified,  probably  for 
failure  to  reach  the  gold  regions.  Like  Lander,  the  valet  of  Mungo 
Park,  who,  after  the  latter's  death,  returned  to  Africa,  and  with  slen- 
der means  accomplished  the  very  same  voyage  which  his  master  had 
died  in  attempting,  a  priest  of  Sataspes'  expedition  claimed  to  have 
afterwards  successfully  circumnavigated  the  African  Continent. 

During  the  fourth  century  B.  C,  a  Carthaginian  expedition,  under 
Hanno,  sailed  to  the  Western  coast  of  Africa,  made  the  river  Sene- 
gal, the  coast  of  Guinea,  the  volcanoes  of  Sierra  Leone  and  the  Cape 
of  Tres  Puntos,  lat.  5  N. ,  from  which  point  it  turned  back.'  At  a 
subsequent  date  Hanno  sailed  down   the   entire  African  coast  and 

*  McCuUocli,  Geo<j.  Die,  I,  41. 

^  Malte-Brun,  III,  75,  76.  77.  See  Dr.  Bleeck  and  Custs'  Afodern  Languages  of 
Africa  on  the  philological  importance  of  the  South  African  languages. 

*  "The  negros  are  fully  aware  of  the  value  of  gold,  but  seldom  search  for  it."  Dr. 
Livingstone  in  Lock,  10.  At  Zanzibar,  in  1799,  the  negros  preferred  brass  buttons  to 
guineas.  Macgreggor,  11,  339.  Cameron  states  that  in  Katanga  "  the  natives  do  not 
value  gold  ;  it  is  too  soft."  Lock,  25.  In  Coomassie,  before  the  gold-hunters  came, 
the  natives  patched  their  broken  crockery  with  gold  rivets.  Lock,  30.  In  Madagas- 
car "silver  is,  in  general,  preferred  to  gold."  Macgreggor,  11,  343.  Batua  is  rich  in 
gold  and  silver,  but  the  natives  appear  to  prefer  mining  for  iron.  Malte-Brun,  iii,  Si. 
'  Periplus  of  Hanno,  in  Gibbon's  Essav  on  the  Meridonal  Line. 


•  THK    I'M'NDKR    UK    AKKIl.A.  277 

finally  made  his  way  to  the  Red  Sea."  It  was  at  this  period  that  ilie 
Suez  Canal  was  re-opened  for  at  least  tlie  fourth  time." 

In  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Philopata,  B.  C.  177,  Agatharcides  sailed 
down  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  concerning  whose  trade  he  has  left  a 
scant  account,  in  his  De  Mari  Rubro,  noting,  among  other  matters, 
that  the  Sabaii  valued  silver  ten  times  more  than  gold.  This  could  not 
possibly  have  related  to  the  Saba^ans  of  Arabia,  because  that  people 
had  for  ages  traded  between  Arabia  and  India  and  well  knew  the 
relative  value  of  the  precious  metals  in  both  countries.  It  couUl  only 
have  related  to  some  coast  tribe  of  Africa,  who  were  willing  to  pay 
ten  weights  of  gold-dust,  the  produce  of  their  own  country,  for  one 
weight  of  silver  coins,  the  produce  of  Egypt  or  of  Rome;  coins,  the 
like  of  which  they  could  not  themselves  fabricate,  and  which  were 
valued  rather  for  ornamental  purposes  than  as  money. 

In  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Lathyrus,  B.  C.  11 7-81,  Eudoxus  of  Cy- 
zicus,  a  Greek  navigator,  made  a  voyage  down  the  eastern  coast  of 
Africa,  probably  as  far  as  the  emporium  of  Rhapta  or  Quiloa.  alluded 
to  by  Arrian,  and  situated  in  lat.  10  S.,  and  thence  across  the  sea  to 
India,  where  he  exchanged  his  cargo  for  the  precious  stones  and 
spices  of  the  Orient,  and  returned  to  Egypt.  At  a  subsequent  date 
he  made  a  trading  voyage  down  the  western  coast  of  Africa  until  he 
heard  spoken  the  same  native  languages  that  he  had  heard  on  the 
eastern  coast  This  would  carry  him  down  to  the  Southern  tropic 
and  within  hearing  of  the  gold  regions  of  Sofala.  "  Long  before  this, 
Caelius  Antipater  informs  us  tliat  he  had  seen  a  person  who  had 
sailed  from  Spain  to  Ethiopia  for  the  purposes  of  trade."  Pliny,  11, 
67.  The  Eudoxus  here  mentioned  as  of  Cyzicus,  may  have  been  the 
celebrated  Eudoxus  of  Cnidos,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Plato,  and  flour- 
ished about  B.  C.  366,  the  confusion  of  dates  arising  from  the  alter- 
ation of  loS  years  in  the  calendar  by  Augustus  Caesar.  Del  Mar's 
"Worship  of  Augustus,"  p.  37. 

Returning  to  Egypt,  probably  to  urge  the  government  to  sustain 
the  cost  of  an  expedition  to  these  regions  and  thus  reap  for  itself 
great  riches,  Eudoxus  fell  under  tiie  displeasure  of  the  court,  and 
flying  from  its  vengeance,  yet  determined  to  pursue  the  voyage  he 

*  Pliny,  II,  67;  VI.  36. 
*  The  Sue?  Can.-il  was  in  existence  during  the  reign  of  Rameses  II.,  B.  C.  131 1,  as 
the  ruins  on  its  b.nnks  attest.  Rawiinson's  Herodotus,  ft.  to  il,  5S.  This  monarch  is 
supposed  to  be  the  same  with  .Sesostris.  mentioned  by  Aristotle,  Pliny  and  Strabo. 
TheCanal  was  re-opened  by  Necho,  15. C.  610.  Ilerfxl..  11,  15S.  Re-opened  by  Darius. 
B.  C.  521-485.  Herod.,  11,  15S.  Re-opened  by  the  Ptolemies;  by  the  Romans  under 
Julius  Cxsar,  Augustus,  and  Trajan,  or  Hadrian;  by  the  Arabs,  A.  I).  639;  and  lastly, 
by  He  I.esseps.  A.  D.  1S69. 


278  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METAI?!. 

had  planned,  he  embarked  on  the  Red  Sea,  followed  the  entire  coast 
down  to  the  Cape,  doubled  that  point,  sailed  up  the  western  coast, 
and  eventually  arrived  at  Cadiz  in  Spain.'" 

During  the  Roman  ^rain  Egypt,  the  Phoenician  (Arabian  ")  navi- 
gators and  merchants  maintained  an  active  and  extensive  trade  for 
gold,  slaves  and  ivory,  with  the  eastern  coasts  of  Africa,  as  far  south 
as  Cape  Corrientes.  Pliny  possibly  alludes  to  this  trade  where  he  re- 
grets the  efiflux  of  the  precious  metals  from  the  Roman  Empire  to 
India,  because  his  words  leave  it  to  be  inferred  that  the  exports  were 
from  "  our  peninsular  and  Empire  to  India  and  Seres,"  the  peninsular 
meaning  Arabia,  which,  according  to  the  Roman  view,  included  the 
eastern  coast  of  Africa.  Plmy,  xii,  41  (18).  Arrian,  who  wrote  about 
A.  D.  140,'^  describes  the  coasts  and  the  various  emporia  of  the 
Arabians  down  to  Rhapta,  and  concludes  by  saying  that  somewhere 
beyond  that  point  "  the  ocean  sweeps  round  to  the  westward,  where 
it  communicates  with  the  great  Western  Ocean" — the  Atlantic  :  a 
statement  for  which  he  could  only  have  obtained  the  necessary  basis 
from  the  Greek  and  Arabian  navigators  trading  down  to  and  past  the 
gold  regions  of  Sofala. " 

McCuUoch,  in  an  able  essay  on  Africa,  says:  "  There  is  little  room 
to  hesitate  in  fixing  Rhapta  at  Quiloa.  .  .  .  To  the  coast  de- 
scribed in  the  Periplus  of  Arrian,  Ptolemy  adds  an  additional  range 
stretching  south-east  from  Rhapta  to  another  promontory  and  port, 
called  Prasum;  considerably  south-east  from  which  lay  a  large  island, 
Menuthias,  evidently  Madagascar.  According  to  Gosselin,  Prasum 
is  Brava,  while  Dr.  Vincent  makes  it  Mozambique."  With  all  this 
evidence  before  us,  it  is  difficult  to  refrain  from  the  conviction  that 
during  the  Empire,  to  say  nothing  of  still  earlier  periods,  the 
Arabians  traded  with  the  gold  regions  of  Sofala,  and  that  some  know- 
ledge of  this  trade  found  its  way  into  Roman  geographical  works. 

The  Greeks  derived,  or  pretended  to  derive,  the  term  cynocephalus 
from  kunos,  dog,  and  cephale,  head,  and  they  applied  it  to  dog-headed 
monkeys;  but  this  may  be  a  mere  piece  of  verbalism  invented  to 
account  for  the  name  of  a  remote  people  of  Africa,  who  were  men- 
tioned by  ^schylus,  Herodotus,  Ctesias,  and    other  early  writers. 

'''  Cornelius  Nepos.in  Pliny,  11,  67  ;  Posidonius  in  Strabo,  11,  155-160. 

''  Both  Herodotus  and  Pliny  in  some  places  allude  to  the  Phoenicians  as  "Arabians." 
Pliny,  lib.  xii. 

"  Dean  Vincent  assigns  Arrian's  Periplus  to  about  the  year  A.  D.  63. 

'^  That  the  Arabians  traded  with  the  African  coast  down  to  and  past  Sofala,  to  the 
"Southern  Horn,"  was  the  opinion  of  Dean  Vincent.  Consult  his  "  Voyage  of  Nearchus 
and  Periplus  of  the  Erythrean  Sea,"  Oxford,  1809,  4to,  pp.  45,  281. 


THE    PLUNDER    OF    AFRICA.  279 

Sofala  is  mentioned  as  a  gold  region  by  Edrisi,  an  Arabian  author  of 
the  12th  century.  "Omnium  pra;stantissimum  aurum  in  universa 
Sofala  regione  ibi  repereri."  Hartnian's  Latin  Translation.  Covig- 
lium,  a  Portuguese  commander,  who  voyaged  from  the  Red  Sea  to 
Sofala  about  1485,  and  Ulysses  Aldrovandi,  1522-1607,  who  cites 
Johannes  Hugo  concerning  the  gold  of  Sofala,  Mozambique  and 
Melinda,  both  spell  the  name  as  Sofala;  while  Boisard,  a  French 
writer  of  the  17th  century,  and  others,  spell  it  Cephala,  and  describe 
it  as  a  rich  gold  country  of  Africa,  ne.xt  to  Monomotapa. 

Of  the  Roman  land  expeditions  into  Africa  we  have  several  brief 
accounts,  neither  of  which,  however,  contribute  any  essential  infor- 
mation concerning  the  history  of  the  precious  metals. 

It  having  been  reported  to  Augustus  that  "Arabia"  was  rich  in 
gold  (eastern  Egypt  was  then  called  Arabia),  he  equipped  an  expe- 
dition of  ten  thousand  men  and  dispatched  them  to  that  distant  re- 
gion by  way  of  Alexandria.  They  were  commanded  by  .i^Elius  Cal- 
lus, and  included  one  thousand  troops  contributed  by  Obodas,  King 
of  the  XabatK,  and  commanded  by  his  lieutenant  Syllabus,  who  under- 
took to  act  as  guide  to  the  expedition.  It  is  also  said  that  Herod, 
King  of  Judea,  contributed  five  hundred  of  his  body-guard  to  these 
forces.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  expedition  began  a  six  months'  march 
from  Egypt  toward  the  sources  of  the  Nile.  It  is  only  recorded  that 
it  entirely  perished  from  hunger  and  disease.  Nabatha^a  is  de- 
scribed by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lempricre  as  "a  country  of  Arabia  of  which 
the  capital  was  Petra.  .  .  .  and  seems  to  be  derived  from  Na- 
bath,  the  son  of  Ishmael."  This  pious  desire  to  connect  the  name 
with  the  son  of  Ishmael  seems  to  have  induced  this  author  to  remove 
the  Nabathie,  who  were  none  other  than  the  "  Nobatce,  or  people  of 
Nubia  "  (Gibbon,  i,  440),  from  one  side  of  the  Red  Sea  to  the  other. 
Strabo,  who  accompanied  this  expedition  to  Ethiopia,  has  much  to 
say  of  Egypt  and  Nubia,  but  scarcely  anything  of  Arabia.  Accord- 
ing to  Kramer  this  portion  of  his  geography  is  strangely  corrupted. 
Mire  corrupta  est  h.'ec  ultima  libre  pars:  probably  in  order  to  drag 
in  the  name  of  "King  Aretas. " 

A  similar  expedition,  ecjuipped  by  Nero,  is  mentioned  by  Pliny, 
Seneca  and  Dion  Cassius.  The  first  says  it  consisted  of  the  prxtorian 
troops ;  the  last,  that  it  only  comprised  two  centuries,  and  that  its  ob- 
ject was  to  explore  the  sources  of  the  Nile.  It  appears  to  have  pene- 
trated to  Dongola,  about  a  thousand  miles  beyond  Syene;  but  with- 
out any  results  that  seem  to  have  been  worth  recording.  A  Roman 
expedition  into  Africa,  under  the   Emperor  Antoninus  Pius,  .\.  D. 


28o  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

138-61,  is  mentioned  by  Pausanias,  in  Arcadics,  XLiii,  who  says  that 
the  Romans  drove  the  Moors  "entirely  out  of  their  country  and  com- 
pelled them  to  fly  to  the  extremities-of  Libya,  to  the  mountain  Atlas, 
and  to  the  people  who  dwell  near  Atlas."  In  the  seventh  century, 
when  the  Arabians  advanced  westward  from  Egypt  to  Morocco,  they 
found  the  Romans  of  Byzantium  strongly  entrenched  along  the  north- 
ern coasts,  as  well  as  in  the  possession  of  some  of  the  interior  parts 
of  Africa.  "  The  Byzantine  legate  reigned  at  Carthage;  while  Greg- 
ory, the  patrician,  governed  at  Sufetula."  Del  Mar's  "  Hist.  Monetary 
Systems,"  chap,  v.  Indeed,  Roman  remains  have  been  found  of  late 
years  in  the  extreme  parts  of  the  Desert  of  Sahara;  but  whatever 
the  objects  of  these  expeditions  and  garrisons,  whether  conquest, 
plunder,  geographical  discovery,  or  trade,  they  all  failed.  Roman 
Africa  was  practically  confined  to  the  navigable  parts  of  Egypt, 
Carthage  and  Mauritania;  it  never  extended  to  the  gold  regions, either 
of  Sofala  on  the  south-eastern  or  of  Guinea  on  the  western  coast. 

Our  knowledge  of  Africa,  beyond  the  Roman  or  Byzantine  pale, 
substantially  begins  with  the  explorations  of  the  Moslem  Arabs  dur- 
ing the  Middle  Ages;  yet  so  far  as  the  precious  metals  are  concerned 
it  amounts  to  very  little;  for  although  the  Arabs  penetrated  the  Dark 
Continent  in  every  direction — a  fact  attested  by  the  presence  of  the 
Moslem  religion  or  customs,  among  the  remotest  negro  tribes — they 
always  kept  secret  their  knowledge  of  the  districts  where  gold  was 
to  be  obtained  by  mining,  and  they  often  even  succeeded  in  conceal- 
ing ihe  channels  of  trade  through  which  flowed  the  product  of  the 
mines.  Captain  Soule,  whom  the  writer  met  at  Sir  INIontague  Nelson's 
mansion  at  Ealing,  in  1886,  and  who  had  lived  three  years  in  the 
Congo  country  and  seven  years  in  the  Ashanti  country,  besides  many 
other  parts  of  Africa,  stated  that  traces  of  Arabian  mining  works 
had  been  encountered  all  the  way  between  Zanguebar  and  Sofala  on 
the  east  coast  and  across  Central  Africa  to  Morocco  on  the  west  coast. 
Cameron  and  Burton  made  similar  statements.  The  writer  himself 
has  seen  Arabian  mining  works  in  Senegambia.  Notwithstanding  the 
mystery  which  hung  over  interior  Africa  and  rendered  it  to  Europeans 
an  unknown  land,  until  it  was  explored  by  Livingstone,  Stanley, 
Cameron,  Strologo,  Soule,  Burton,  and  others,  there  are  evidences 
that  the  Arabs  had  previously  gone  over  the  entire  continent  and 
skimmed  it  of  all  its  easily-found  gold.  The  rapid  commercial  devel- 
opment of  the  empire  which  the  Moslems  founded  at  Baghdad  dur- 
ing the  Middle  Ages,  though  it  began  with  plunder,  was  evidently 
sustained  by  mining  and  trading  for  gold.     Their  plunder  of  the  pre- 


THE    PLUNDER    OK    AFRICA.  281 

cious  metals  was  obtained  chiefly  in  the  Byzantine  provinces  of  Asia 
and  in  Persia;  their  mining  produce  came  for  the  most  part  from 
Africa.  They  began  witli  re-working  the  Egyptian  and  Nubian  mines, 
but  they  soon  learnt  that  it  was  far  more  profitable  to  purchase  gold 
than  to  dig  for  it. 

Here  it  is  to  be  observed  that,  unlike  any  of  the  gold-seeking  na- 
tions who  preceded  or  followed  them,  the  Moslems  refrained  from 
procuring  gold  by  slavery.  No  Moslem  could  be  a  slave.  To  accept 
the  Moslem  faith  was  to  secure  freedom;  and  this  important  fact  not 
only  explains  the  avidity  with  which  Islam  was  em!)raced  by  tlie 
Roman,  Persian,  and  Indian  provinces;  it  also  explains  the  conver- 
sion of  Africa  to  the  faith  of  the  Moslems.  Their  traders  knew  the 
east  coast  down  to  Gaza,  Swazi  and  Matabele  Lands;  they  knew 
Madagascar;  they  knew  the  Soudan  as  far  west  as  the  Senegal  and 
the  Gambia;  and  they  probably  also  knew  Uganda  and  the  Lake 
country.  Their  caravans  from  the  Nile  met  those  from  Morocco;  anil 
in  the  great  marls  of  Timbuctoo  and  Mogador,  the  salt  of  Senegam- 
bia,  and  the  silks  of  Grenada  were  eagerly  exchanged  for  the  gold- 
dust  which  the  dusky  natives  had  learnt  both  to  win  from  the  earth 
and  to  despise.  (Cada  Mosto.)  With  the  conquest  of  Spain  by  the 
Christians,  and  th;-  breaking  up  of  the  Arabian  Empire  in  Europe, 
this  trade  declined;  and  the  knowledge  of  its  sources  died  out. 

The  gold  trade  of  the  Soudan  is  described  by  the  Arabian  travellers 
Edrisi,  Abulfeda,  Ibn  al-Wardi,  and  Ibn-Batuta,  the  last  named  of 
whom  has  left  us  the  most  copious  account.  Ibn-Batuta  left  Segel- 
mesa  in  1353,  and  in  a  month's  time  reached  Walet.  Thence  he 
travelled  to  Melli,  in  Eioucaten  (it  sounds  like  Yucatan),  and  after- 
wards to  Timbuctoo.  The  numerous  evidences  of  a  traffic  in  gold 
which  he  observed  upon  the  way  put  him  upon  the  lookout  for  mines; 
but  the  only  ones  he  found  where  work  was  being  prosecuted  were 
iron  mines.  The  gold  ones  were  eviilently  concealed  from  strangers. 
The  travellers  who  next  described  this  region  were  Hassan-ben- 
Mahomet, Cada  Mosto,  1454,  and  Leo  Africanus,  1511.  Leo  mentions 
the  celebrated  gold  mines  of  Guangaru ;  yet  he  neglects  to  sufficiently 
describe  their  character  or  extent,  or  the  manner  of  working  them. 
Some  gold  ornaments  which  the  King  of  Timbuctoo  obtained  from 
this  region  weighed  as  much  as  1,300  ounces;  but  nuggets  of  this 
size,  though  uncommon,  afford  no  criterion  of  the  richness  of  a  min- 
ing district.  The  fact  that  the  mosque  and  palace  of  Timbuctoo  were 
built  by  architects  from  Grenada  in  .\.  D.  12  15,  justly  appeared  to 
Leo  of  more  interest  than  enijuiring  into  mines.     The  people  of 


262  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS, 

Guinea  were  the  first  to  embrace  Islam  in  Western  Africa,  and  the 
seat  of  Mahometan  power  was  originally  at  Gualata  (Oualet)  north 
of  Guinea;  a  fact  which  indicates  that  Mahometan  civilization  was 
brought  into  this  country  from  Spain  or  Morocco,  rather  than  from 
Egypt.  Upon  the  conquest  of  Guinea  by  Izchia,  King  of  Timbuctoo, 
the  seat  of  power  was  removed  to  that  city,  and  Gualata  lost  its  pre- 
eminence. 

The  principal  Arabian  kingdom  in  Central  Africa  was  Ghanah, 
whose  chief  city  was  Kano.  The  Arabian  travellers  dwelt  upon  the 
splendour  of  its  court,  its  throne  of  massive  gold  and  other  wonders. 
The  next  Arabian  kingdom  was  Tocrur  or  Takrour,  close  to  Sokato. 
Konkou  or  Bornu,  celebrated  for  its  manufactures,  was  the  next 
kingdom  to  the  westward.  South  of  Ghanah  was  Oungara,  where 
the  richest  gold  placers  were  situated.  At  a  later  period,  Belek-el- 
Soudan  (Lordship  of  the  Soudan)  appears  to  have  embraced  all  these 
kingdoms,  extending  from  Darfur  to  Senegambia;  but  at  the  present 
time  they  are  again  broken  up  into  separate  principalities,  or  else  ab- 
sorbed into  the  newly-erected  European  empire  facetiously  styled 
the  Congo  Free  State,  where  freedom  appears  to  consist  of  enslaving 
and  whipping  men  and  women  in  order  to  compel  them  to  produce 
gold,  india-rubber,  and  ivory.     (See  Appendix  to  this  Chapter.) 

Gold  was  obtained,  and  is  still  obtained  to  a  small  extent,  through- 
out all  Equatorial  Africa,  but  we  have  no  quantitative  accounts. 
This  much,  however,  must  again  be  remarked  of  this  region:  that  so 
long  as  it  remained  under  Moslem  control  or  influence  we  hear  of  no 
cruelties,  no  sacrifice  of  native  life;  in  short,  no  such  tragedies  as 
distinguished  the  career  of  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  in  the  East 
and  West  Indies. 

Guinea,  or  the  Gold  Coast,  which  includes  Ashanti,  was  visited  for 
gold  by  the  Spanish  Arabs  during  the  ]\Iiddle  Ages,  and  by  the  Norse- 
men from  the  coast  of  France  so  early  as  1382.  In  1442,  Antonio 
Gonzales,  returning  from  a  voyage  beyond  Cape  Bogador, brought  the 
first  gold  and  the  first  slaves  from  Senegambia  to  Portugal.  Some  of 
the  latter  were  negros,  whilst  others  were  of  a  lighter  colour,  evi- 
dently half-breed  Arabs.  (Helps,  i,  37,  52.)  Of  this  spoil,  both  gold 
and  slaves,  the  good  Prince  Henry  reserved  the  Quinto,  that  is  to 
say,  a  Fifth,  for  his  own  share.  The  success  of  the  expedition  led 
in  1444  to  the  formation  of  a  Portuguese  Company  to  capture  gold 
and  slaves.  In  1469  the  trade  was  farmed  out  to  one  Fernando  Gomez 
for  five  years,  at  one  thousand  ducats  a  year,  and  it  was  this  specu- 
lator, who,  in  147 1,  by  one  of  his  ship-captains,  Pedro  de  Escobar, 


THE    PLUNDER    OF    AFRICA.  283 

"discovereil  "  tlie  Arabian  occupation  of  the  Ciold  Coast  and  built 
the  fort  of  El  Mina,  a  name  which  was  also  granted  to  the  "dis- 
coverer," in  a  patent  of  nobility,  which  he  paid  for,  with  the  gold  ob- 
tained from  this  place.  The  "discovery"  was  followed  by  a  "grant  " 
from  the  Pope  of  Rome.  Leo  Af ricanus,  a  geographer  of  this  period, 
stated  that  the  King  of  Ghanali  had  a  gold  nugget  weighing  30  pounds, 
which  was  bored  through  and  fitted  for  a  seat.  In  later  times  the 
King  of  Buncatoo  had  a  solid  gold  stool,  which  proved  to  be  the 
cause  of  his  destruction.  And  in  our  own  times  King  Prempeh,  of 
the  same  region,  had,  or  was  reputed  to  have  had,  a  stool  of  the  sarjie 
auriferous  material,  which,  like  Miss  Kilmansegg's  Golden  Leg,  be- 
came the  means  of  his  downfall;  for  it  led  to  the  invasion  and  con- 
quest of  Ashanti-land  by  the  English.  Yet  the  entire  auriferous  re- 
sults of  this  war  (1S96),  including  the  coveted  stool,  which  was  partly 
the  occasion  of  it,  did  not  exceed  ;/^2,ooo  in  value. 

In  1479  the  rival  claims  of  Spain  and  Portugal  to  lands  which 
neither  of  them  had  discovered,  conquered  or  colonized,  were  recon- 
ciled by  a  division  of  the  spoil;  Spain  retaining  the  Canary  Islands 
and  Portugal  the  Coast  of  Guinea.  In  1553  an  English  adventurer 
made  his  appearance  on  the  coast,  hungering  for  gold,  ivory  and 
slaves;  but  it  was  not  until  nine  years  afterwards  that  this  trade  was 
permanently  established  by  another  adventurer,  John  Hawkins.  The 
gold  and  ivory  trade  soon  dwindled  away,  but  the  slave  trade  to 
America,  which  began  here,  speedily  grew  to  such  vast  proportions, 
that  Its  profit  to  the  British  Government  far  exceeded  the  ^50,000 
a  year,  for  which  Queen  Elizabeth  pawned  the  Customs  Revenues 
to  Sir  Thomas  Smith.  (Anderson's  Hist.  Com.,  11,  175.)  For  the 
honour  and  advantage  thus  secured  for  his  native  country,  John 
Hawkins  was  advanced  to  knighthood,  and  returned  to  Parliament 
as  Sir  John.  Meanwhile,  the  unhappy  victims  of  his  cupidity  were 
crowded  into  the  holds  of  slave-ships  and  hurried  off  to  perish  in  the 
gold  mines  of  San  Domingo,  there  to  replace  the  natives  whom  the 
Spaniards  had  already  exterminated.  In  1561  the  Norsemen  again 
made  their  dread  appearance  on  the  coast  of  Guinea,  whereat  the 
English  became  so  fearful  of  losing  their  infamous  traffic  in  mining 
slaves,  that  in  1572  they  made  an  "  arrangement  "  with  Portugal,  by 
which  that  country  conceded  to  them,  alone  of  all  foreigners,  the 
"  freedom  of  trade  "  in  negros. 

This  monopoly  of  the  privilege  to  capture  slaves  was  renewed  by 
the  treaty  of  1642.  It  was  in  this  same  year  that  the  Dutch  com- 
menced to  compete  in  the  gold  and  slave   trade  of  Guinea,  to   for- 


284  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

ward  which  purpose  they  captured  from  the  Portuguese  several  forts 
on  the  Senegal  and  Ashanti  Coasts,  including  Acheen,  or  Axim,  and 
El  Mina;  and  commenced  trading  with  the  natives  for  gold-dust  and 
slaves.  In  1652  the  Swedes  also  took  a  hand  in  this  commerce;  but 
their  vessels  being  seized  by  the  English,  together  with  their  lading 
of  gold,  they  soon  afterwards  abandoned  the  trade.      (Anderson,  11, 

"7,  137,  395'  421.) 

In  1664,  "without  a  formal  declaration  of  war,  until  some  months 
afterwards.  King  Charles  II.,  of  England,  made  war  upon  the  Nether- 
lands,"  by  treacherously  seizing  several  of  the  Dutch  forts  on  the 
coast  of  Guinea.  The  agent  of  this  breach  of  faith  was  Admiral  Sir 
Robert  Holmes,  while  its  beneficiary,  according  to  Anderson,  480-81, 
was  "the  English  African  Company,  at  the  head  of  which  was  the 
Duke  of  York."  In  1665  the  Dutch,  under  Admiral  de  Ruyter,  re- 
took all  these  forts,  as  well  as  "our  own  fort  of  Cormanteen,  which 
they  hold  to  this  day  by  the  name  of  Fort  Amsterdam."  The  com- 
pany mentioned  by  Anderson  was  formed  in  England  to  trade  on  the 
African  coast  for  gold,  ivory  and  slaves ;  and  some  of  the  large  capitals, 
which  since  that  time  have  been  employed  in  England,  are  said  to 
have  had  their  origin  from  this  source.  In  1750,  the  company  (in- 
deed, there  were  several  successive  companies),  was  succeeded  by 
the  African  Company  of  Merchants,  incorporated  under  an  act  of 
Parliament,  with  power  to  erect  forts  and  form  settlements.  These 
forts  were  held,  "not  as  a  territorial  right,  but  at  a  rent  from  native 
governments  ";  that  is  to  say,  from  the  King  of  Fantee.  (McCulloch.) 
In  1807,  after  the  Ashanti  conquest  of  Fantee,  the  rent  was  claimed 
by  and  paid  to  the  King  of  Ashanti.  This  arrangement  subsequently 
gave  rise  to  difficulties,  and  negotiations;  and  in  1820,  to  a  treaty, 
which,  however,  was  not  ratified  by  the  Crown.  In  1821,  the  entire 
property  of  the  African  Company  was  placed  under  the  Crown.  Upon 
the  death  of  King  Sai  Quamina,  in  1823,  war  was  declared  upon  the 
English,  who  were  charged  with  deceit  and  faithlessness.  In  1824 
Sir  C.  M'Carthy  was  defeated  by  the  natives,  but  in  1826  the  Ashantis 
were  defeated  in  turn,  and  compelled  to  pay  six  thousand  ounces  of 
gold  as  indemnity.  In  1874,  the  Gold  Coast  was  erected  into  a  British 
colony.  The  recent  Ashanti  expeditions  have  practically  reduced 
the  entire  coast,  from  Liberia  to  the  Niger,  to  a  British  possession. 

"Gold  is  more  abundant  in  Ashanti  than  in  any  other  part  of 
Africa,  probably  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  world,  not  excepting 
even  South  America,"  wrote  McCulloch  in  1838.  "The  pits  and 
washings  in  Tokoo  alone,  are  reported  to  yield  sometimes  as  much 


THK    PI.L'NDKR    OK    AFRICA.  2S5 

as  2,000  ounces  per  month.  In  1726  Bosnian  gave  the  average  an- 
nual exports  of  Aslianii  at  7,000  French  marks  weight,  or  4,590 
pounds  Troy,  per  annum,  say,  ^250,000  sterling.  (McCulloc  h.  Com. 
Die.)  Captain  (afterwards  Sir  Richard)  Burton  increased  this  esti- 
mate to  ^350,000;  but  the  Captain,  with  whom  the  writer  was  well 
acquainted,  was.  like  most  prospectors,  of  a  sanguine  temperament, 
and  in  respect  of  gold  mines,  a  confirmed  optimist.  His  estimate 
must  tiierefore  be  received  with  caution.  The  following  letter  on  the 
subject  of  gold  mining  in  Africa  appeared  in  the  San  Francisco 
Daily  E.xchange  of  June  7th,  1880: 

"  An  esteemed  friend  in  England  has  lately  sent  me  a  marked  copy 
of  the  African  Times  for  April,  1S80,  a  monthly  newspaper  relating 
to  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  and  published  in  London.  The  marked 
article  relates  to  the  gold  mines  ami  gold  product  of  West  Africa; 
and  as  the  subject  will  doubtless  interest  your  readers,  I  send  you 
herewith  a  digest  of  the  news. 

Rich  gold  mines  have  recently  been  discovered  near  Tacquah,  in 
Wassaw,  which  latter  is  in  Ashanti-land,  a  portion  of  Guinea.  The 
first  information  of  the  strike  was  conveyed  from  Cape  Coast  Caslle 
to  London  by  the  steamer  Biafra,  on  March  i6th,  18S0.  Fifteen  days- 
later  the  steamer  Benguela,  from  Axim,  the  seaport  of  Wassaw, 
brought  confirmation  of  the  news.  Four  mines  have  been  located  as 
follows:  I.  The  African  Gold  Coast  Company,  Limitetl.  This  Com- 
pany was  organized  in  Paris,  and  is  known  as  "The  French  Com- 
pany." It  has  1,000  tons  on  the  dump,  worth  ^20  per  ton.  Stamp 
mill  ordered  and  expected  out  by  May  6tti.  2.  The  Effuenta  Gold 
Mines  Comjiany,  Limitetl,  has  a  European  staff  at  Effuenta  and  sixty 
native  labourers;  adjoins  the  south-west  extremity  of  the  French 
Company's  claim.  Tunnel  commenceil  to  intercept  vein.  3.  W.  & 
A.  Swanzy's  mines.  Have  several  shafts  down.  About  March  i5lh 
they  took  out  of  a  newly-sunk  shaft,  at  a  depth  of  80  feet,  a  piece  of 
quartz  weighing  35  pounds,  "one-quarter  part  of  which  was  pure 
gold."  Sent  to  England  by  the  Biafra.  4.  The  Gold  Coast  Mining 
Company,  Limited.  The  latest  one  organized.  Will  work  the 
Abbontuyakoon  property,  adjoining  the  north-east  extremity  of  the 
French  Company's  lands.  Have  a  shaft  70  feet  deep,  from  which 
rich  ore  has  been  extracted.  A  narrow-gauge  railway  from  Chamah 
to  Wassaw, 50  miles,  is  projected,  and  the  British  Government  is  being 
solicited  to  assist  in  its  establishment. 

So  much  for  the  news.  I  can  see  no  good  reason  to  doubt  its  substan- 
tial authenticity.  That  gold  has  long  been  obtained  from  this  coast 
is  a  well-known  fact.  The  coast  of  Guinea  is  believed  to  have  been 
visited  for  gold  by  the  Moors  and  afterwards  by  the  Normans  in  the 
14th  century.  It  is  certain  that  the  Portuguese  explored  it  in  147 1, 
and  called  it  the  Gold  Coast,  while  they  called  its  port  El  Mina  (The 
Mine.)  Afterwartl  this  port  was  occupied  by  the  Dutch  West  India 
Co.,  and  known  as  Delmina.  Bosnian,  Father  Labat,  and  other 
African  travellers  have  testified  to  the  wealth  of  its  placers. 


286  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

The  following  table  is  from  Bosman,  pp.  61-97;  the  equivalents  in 
Troy  pounds  weight  and  American  dollars,  having  been  added  by 
myself: 

Average  Annual  Export  of  Gold  Dust  from  the  Coast  of  Guinea  during  the 
early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Shippers.  Marks  \Yeight.         Pounds  Troy.  Value. 

9S3.7  $243-997 

786.9  195,198 

983.7  243,997 

655.8  162,665 
655.8  162,665 
524.6  130,132 


Dutch  West  Indian  Co.     . 

1500 

EngHsh-African  Co. 

1200 

Dutch  Private  Traders, 

1500 

English   Private  Traders, 

1000 

Prussians  and  Danes,   . 

I  GOO 

Portuguese  and  French,    . 

800 

Total  and  Fractions,    .     .  7000  4590.7  $1,138,654 

During  the  eleven  years  from  1808  to  1818  inclusive,  the  amount 
of  gold-dust  shipped  from  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  by  the  English- 
African  Company  in  men-of-war,  was  81,905  ounces,  equal  to  $692,- 
976,  an  average  of  $153,907  per  annum.  From  1819  to  1857  inclu- 
sive, the  average  annual  shipments  of  gold  from  the  British  posses- 
sions on  the  West  Coast  were  about  $150,000.  From  1858  to  1875 
inclusive,  the  average  annual  shipments  from  the  West  Coast  posses- 
sions (British  and  other,  but  not  including  French),  were  $118,000. 
From  1876  to  1895  inclusive,  the  average  annual  shipments  from  the 
British  possessions  on  the  West  Coast  fell  to  about  $100,000.  Since 
the  conquest  of  Ashanti-land  by  the  British  forces  in  1896,  the  negros 
have  been  replaced  at  the  gold-mines  and  the  output  has  increased. 

The  above  is  all  the  specific  data  I  can  find  in  the  various  works 
devoted  to  this  subject.  This  data  is  no  warrant  for  believing  that 
the  gold  exports  of  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  were  ever  important 
enough  to  excite  attention.  Mr.  Jacob,  in  his  "History  of  the  Pre- 
cious Metals,"  chapter  xxii,  says:  "  We  are  disposed  to  estimate  at 
Si  very  low  rate  the  whole  produce  of  gold  from  Africa,  and  in  our  es- 
timate of  the  production  of  the  world  at  large,  we  have  not  thought 
it  necessary  to  take  notice  of  it."  Other  recent  writers  on  the  sub- 
ject have  pursued  a  similar  course.  No  estimate  of  the  gold  product 
of  the  world  ever  makes  any  allowance  for  the  product  of  Guinea. 
It  is  too  small. 

Such  being  the  case,  what  are  we  to  think  of  the  leading  editorial 
in  the  African  Times  above  alluded  to,  in  which  it  is  claimed  that 
the  shipment  of  gold  by  Europeans  from  the  West  coast  of  Africa 
began  in  147 1,  and  has  continued  ever  since  at  a  decreasing  rate, 
which  has  lately  sunk  to  half  a  million  pounds  sterling  (say  $2,500,- 
000)  per  annum;  and  that  to  estimate  the  entire  shipments  at  one 
billion  pounds  sterling  (say  five  billion  dollars),  is  quite  within  the 
mark!  Five  thousand  m.illion  dollars  is  four  times  as  much  as  Cali- 
fornia ever  produced;  more  than  twice  as  much  as  California  and 
Australia  combined,  and  very  nearly  as  much  as  all  the  gold  coin  and 
bullion  now  existing  in  Europe  and  America  combined.  In  view  of 
these  facts,  I  am  compelled  to  conclude  that  the  West  African  editor 
is   somewhat  disposed   to  draw   the  long  bow,  and  such  being  the 


THE    PLUNDER    OF    AFRICA.  2S7 

case,  would  warn  investors  from  pulling  loo  much  faith  in  the  great 
Ashanti  Ciold  Boom. 

The  figures  given  by  Soetbeer,  who  estimates  the  exports  of  gold 
from  all  Africa  from  1493  to  1875,  ^^  about  ^100.000,000,  are 
purely  the  result  of  conjecture.  There  is  no  warrant  for  them  in 
either  the  commercial  accounts,  or  the  reports  of  travellers.  If  they 
were  reduced  to  one  fifth  the  amount,  or  say  $100,000,000  they  would 
still  be  ample  enough  to  cover  the  truth.  These  accounts  are  re- 
published in  Mr.  Lock's  bulky  volume  on  Gold. 

'I'he  source  of  the  gold  found  in  Senegal,  Liberia,  Ashanti  and 
Dahomey,  is  the  Kong  Mountains,  distant  about  three  hundred  miles 
from  the  Coast.  In  the  foothills  of  this  range  are  the  ipiartz  veins 
which  furnish  the  gold,  and,  below  them,  the  gravel  beds,  which  re- 
ceive it.  The  rivers,  cutting  through  these  alluvions,  carry  the  gold 
in  continually  diminishing  proportions  to  the  seashore,  where  minute 
particles  of  it  are  still  found  in  the  sand,  but  not  in  quantities  suffi- 
cient to  pay  for  extracting  it,  even  by  the  most  economical  processes 
known  to  man.  The  principal  part  of  the  country  that  has  been 
"worked  "  consists  of  the  gravel  beds  between  the  f(JOthills  and  the 
Coast,  especially  these  adjacent  to  the  rivers.  Most  of  these  are 
dammed;  and  the  water  is  run  into  small  ditch  lines  for  the  purpose 
of  washing  gold.  While  the  water  season  lasts  the  natives  can  "pan  " 
on  the  average  from  ten  to  twenty  cents  worth  of  gold  per  diem,  and, 
as  ne.xt  to  planting  a  little  maize,  this  is  their  princijial  occupation, 
there  are  probably  several  hundred  thousand  of  them  thus  employed. 

'I'he  native  reef  or  quartz  mines  consist  of  narrow  shafts,  dug 
with  adze  and  chisel,  varying  from  20  to  50  feet  in  depth.  Two  men 
can  sink  about  one  foot  a  day.  The  gold  is  extracted  by  pulveris- 
ing the  quartz  and  panning.  One  man  can  pulverize  and  pan  a  ton 
per  month.  Women  and  children  are  commonly  employed  in  the 
work.  At  Tacquah  the  average  earnings  are  ten  cents  a  day,  paid 
foi,  chiefly,  in  execrable  gin,  at  4s.  6d.  (about  one  dollar)  per  bottle. 
The  negro  King's  royalty  is  nominally  one-half  of  the  quartz  from 
the  reef  mines  and  all  large  nuggets  from  the  alluvions;  but  these 
exactions  are  largely  evaded. 

Whether  arising  from  some  ancient  aiul  forgotten  ordinance  of 
religion  or  from  the  cruelties  to  which  the  natives  were  subjected  by 
the  various  races  of  gold-hunters — Phoenicians,  Romans,  Moslems, 
Normans  or  Christians — who  have  successively  visited  their  coast,  is 
not  known;  but  there  exists  throughout  all  this  country  a  supersti- 
tious horror  of  searching  for  gold.  This  aversion  was  once  so  com- 
mon that  after  the  eighteenth  century  and  until  quite  recently,  it  was 
difficult  to  procure  any  gold  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa.  However, 
the  insuperable  attractions  of  gin  and  the  elevating  influences  of  total 
insensibility,  have  at  length  won  the  day;  and  for  the  sake  of  a  thor- 
ough soaking  in  the  Mountain  Dew  of  European  civilization,  the  na- 
tive will  now  slave  for  a  month  and  brave  death  in  the  most  danger- 
ous climate  under  the  sun." 

The  aversion  to  gold-mining  alluded  to  by  this  writer  is  not  con- 


288  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

fined  to  the  native  races;  it  is  shared  very  strongly  by  the  Dutch 
Boers,  whose  opposition  to  it,  evinced  in  many  ways,  led  to  a  War  in 
which  their  national  existence  is  yet  at  stake. 

The  subject  of  aversion  to  mining,  the  causes  that  have  led  to  it  in 
various  countries,  and  the  Policy  of  Closing  the  Mines,  which  is  con- 
nected with  it,  is  treated  at  length  in  a  another  portion  of  the  present 
work. 

We  now  turn  to  the  gold  regions  of  south-eastern  Africa.  This 
embraced  the  eastern  coast,  from  the  mouths  of  the  Zambesi,  south- 
ward for  about  800  or  1,000  miles,  and  in  a  general  sense  extended 
inland  to  the  various  placer  mines  whence  the  natives  fetched  gold 
in  trade  to  the  port  of  Sofala,  in  lat.  21  south.  Though  this  region 
did  not  include  the  mining  districts  which  have  since  become  so  pro- 
ductive, in  the  Transvaal  Republic,  it  came  close  to  them,  and  in- 
cluded the  whole  of  the  Monomatapa  country,  now  known  as  Mata- 
bele  Land,  Swaziland,  Rhodesia,  etc.  In  this  region  the  native  word 
for  gold  is  danama,  probably  a  corruption  of  the  Arabian  dinar. 

The  opening  of  the  Zambesi  gold  region  by  the  Portuguese  must 
not  be  regarded  as  either  the  result  of  accident  or  of  geographical 
research.  The  captains  of  Prince  Henry's  ships  were  not  seeking 
renow'n,  but  gold,  and  their  entire  course  was  governed  by  this  con- 
sideration.'^ Gold  was  first  met  with  by  Henry's  navigators  at  Rio 
d'Ouro  (Gold  River),  under  the  tropic  of  Cancer;  and  the  sight  of  a 
few  ounces  brought  home  by  them  was  the  immediate  cause  of  estab- 
lishing an  African  Company  at  Lagos. '^  So  long  as  this  Company 
continued  to  earn  profits'®  from  its  nefarious  traffic  in  slaves,  little 
effort  was  made  to  push  maritime  discovery  along  the  coast,  but  when 
these  profits  fell  away,  the  timorous  and  unwilling  navigators  were 
urged  on  beyond  Guinea,  past  the  non-auriferous  coast  of  the  Con- 
tinent, until,  in  1498,  they  rounded  the  Cape  and  reached  Caffraria, 
where,  near  Cape  Corrientes,  De  Gama  first  saw  in  the  hands  of  the 
natives  those  implements  and  ornaments  of  civilized  manufacture 
which  assured  him  that  he  was  near  the  Arabian  settlement  at  Sofala, 
of  which  Covigliam  had  advised  the  Portuguese  Court. 

De  Gama's  first  actual  meeting  with  the  Arabians  was  at  the  Island 

'■*  "  The  views  of  Cada  Mosta"  (whose  two  voyages  down  the  African  coast  were 
made  in  1455  and  1456,  and  who  has  left  us  a  journal  of  these  voyages  by  his  own  hand) 
"do  not  seem  to  reach  beyond  the  fame  and  profit  of  his  immediate  discoveries." 
Gibbon's  Treatise,  498. 

'^  Dean  Vincent's  Notes  to  Gibbon's  Treatise.  This  Company,  established  1444, 
enjoyed  a  monopoly  in  gold,  slaves,  ivory,  etc.,  on  the  African  coast.  Prince  Henry 
was  a  large  shareholder.     Gibbon,  497. 

'^  These  sometimes  exceeded  1,000  per  cent.     Gibbon,  507. 


THE    PLUNDKR    OK    AKKICA.  2S9 

of  Mozambique;  his  first  act  was  one  of  treachery.  The  Moslems 
greeted  him  with  kindness;  he  repaid  them  with  a  cannonade.  Simdar 
liospitality  was  extended  to  him  at  Melinda,  liis  northermost  port  on 
this  voyage,  but  the  Arabians  at  this  place  being  better  armed,  De 
Gama  refrained  from  assaulting  them,  and  spread  his  sails  for  India. 
In  the  course  of  the  ne.\t  few  years  the  Portuguese,  either  by  treach- 
ery or  force,  succeeded  in  occupying  all  of  the  Arabian  settlements  on 
the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  work  the  coveted 
mines  for  their  own  profit. 

The  Arabian  method  of  working  the  mines  of  the  Zambesi  was  the 
commercial  one,  the  method  of  their  forefathers  the  Phoenicians,  and 
of  the  Hindus,  who  were  the  forefathers  of  the  Phoenicians."  The 
Portuguese  method  was  that  of  their  forefathers,  the  Romans  of  the 
Empire:  it  was  the  method  of  mine-slavery.  The  Arabians  brought 
to  the  gold  coast  such  merchandise  as  the  native  chiefs  required,  and 
exchanged  these  goods  for  gold-dust,  ivory  and  slaves;  slaves  not 
intended  to  be  exploited  in  mines,  but  reserved  for  a  servitude  but 
little  harsher  than  patriarchal  subjection.  They  never  attempted  to 
master  the  country  or  to  sacrifice  the  natives  to  a  ferocious  or  callous 
cupidity.  This  was  the  Portuguese  method.  After  the  latter  had 
seized  upon  the  Arabian  coast  settlements  and  slaughtered  or  driven 
away  their  masters,  they  penetrated  into  the  coveted  gold  country, 
fortified  a  line  of  communications  with  the  coast,  hunted  down  the 
frightened  inhabitants  with  fire-arms  and  blood-hounds,  and  thrust 
them  into  the  mines,  to  work  under  the  lash  and  with  insufficient  food 
and  rest — leaving  them  no  hope  of  escape  but  in  death.  Notwith- 
standing the  stimulus  to  production  which  tjiis  atrocious  system  af- 
forded, the  produce  of  the  Zambesi  mines  ceased  to  become  impor- 
tant. As  the  cruelties  of  the  Portuguese  proceeded,  the  uncaptured 
natives  removed  farther  and  farther  away  from  the  mines,  each  one 
of  which  thus  becoming  the  centre  of  a  solitude  which  was  only  broken 
by  the  sound  of  the  Portuguese  mining  picks  {awat/firirs),  ami  the 
despairing  sighs  of  the  slaves  who  were  forced  to  wield  them.  Africa 
was  neither  a  narrow  island  nor  an  isthmus,  nor  a  strip  of  littoral, 
like  Hispaniola,  Darien  or  Peru.  It  was  therefore  impossible  to  keep 
the  natives  at  work  in  the  gold  mines,  as  had  been  done  in  America. 
As  the  Africans  fled  before  the  Portuguese  they  drove  their  flocks 
before  them,  and  thus  rendered  provisions  more  and  more  scarce  and 
expensive  to  the  miners.      Years  before  the  date  of  Barreto's  expe- 

'■  For  the  e.nsy  and  indulgent  methods  of  the  T'..ini.Tn  f.irmers  of  the  customs,  r.l 
Zanzibar,  see  the  Reports  of  the  U.  S.  Consul  .Tt  th;it  pi.icc. 


290  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

dition,  presently  to  be  mentioned,  it  had  become  difificult  to  capture 
mining-slaves  near  the  gold  regions.  As  for  purchasing  slaves  along 
the  coast  and  conveying  them  to  the  mines,  although  such  a  policy 
was  quite  feasible,  it  is  evident,  because  it  was  not  pursued,  that  it 
would  not  have  paid,  and  that  the  mines  were  too  poor.  In  Brazil, 
although  the  average  value  of  the  auriferous  gravel  was  comparatively 
low,  yet,  in  many  places,  it  was  found  to  be  rich  enough  to  repay  the 
expense  of  purchasing  slaves  in  the  marts  of  Western  Africa,  con- 
veying them  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  Rio  Janeiro,  and  marching 
them  from  300  to  500  miles  into  the  interior  of  Minhas  Geraes  and 
Goyaz,  a  journey  of  one  to  two  months.  How  poor  the  gravel  of 
the  Zambesi  regions  had  proved  to  be  is  evinced  by  the  fact  that  it 
did  not  pay  the  Portuguese  to  fetch  a  gang  of  negros  from  so  com- 
paratively near  a  mart  as  Zanguebar. 

In  spite  of  this  poverty  of  the  mines,  a  fact  which  a  very  slight  re- 
search into  their  history,  or  else  an  ordinary  exertion  of  reason  would 
have  been  sufficient  to  establish,  the  fascination  of  gold  mining  was 
such  that  this  region  became  the  scene  of  one  of  the  most  extraor- 
dinary misadventures  among  the  many  which  are  to  be  found  in  the 
annals  of  mining.  However,  before  describing  the  expedition  of 
Barreto,  it  will  be  necessary  to  briefly  allude  to  that  of  Alboquerque. 

About  the  year  15 10,  this  Portuguese  hero  coasted  the  Red  Sea, 
plundering  its  maritime  cities,  and  landing  at  Suakin,  or  some  other 
port  in  the  vicinity,  from  whence  he  sent  a  proposal  to  the  christian 
King  of  Abyssinia  to  assist  him  in  cutting  a  navigable  canal  to  the 
upper  Nile,  w-ith  the  object  to  divert  the  Indian  trade  from  Alexan- 
dria, then  in  possession  of  the  Moslems,  and  turn  it  to  Abyssinia.  It 
has  been  said  that  the  real  object  of  this  scheme  was  to  divert  the 
trade  by  the  sea  route  to  Portugal,  also  to  procure  an  army  of  labour- 
ers to  re-open  and  work  the  gold  mines  of  the  Bisharee  region.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  it  received  no  encouragement  from  the  Abyssinian 
prince,  and  so  came  to  nothing.  Mr.  Herbert  Vivian,  in  a  recent 
work,  informs  us  that  in  Abyssinia  "only  the  royal  family  are  per- 
mitted to  wear  gold  in  any  form";  an  interdict  that  probably  had 
its  origin  in  the  horror  of  those  crimes  by  which  gold  was  commonly 
procured,  and  in  which  the  pious  monarch  of  Abyssinia  desired  to 
take  no  part. 

About  the  period  1552-1567,  Francisco  dp  Barreto  was  the  Portu- 
guese viceroy  of  India  at  Goa.  In  1553,  to  punish  the  poet  Camoens 
for  reminding  the  grasping  officials  of  his  court  that  "  honour  and  self- 
interest  are  never  found  in  the  same  sack,"  he  sent  him  to  Macao. 


THE    PLUNDER    OK    AFRICA. 

Sixteen  years  later  IJarreto  was  in  Lisbon  at  the  head  of  a  mining 
scheme.  He  solicited  and  obtained  permission  from  the  King  Doni 
Sebastian  to  conduct  an  expedition  to  the  gold  regions  of  south- 
eastern Africa.  The  Arabian  name  of  the  country, Sofala,  which  means 
low  country,  or  netherlands, '"  had  been  distorted  by  the  managers 
of  this  scheme  into  Sophala  and  this  into  Ophira  and  Ophir.  Hence 
they  argued  Sofala  must  have  been  the  source  of  Solomon's  and 
The  Queen  of  Sheba's  wealth.  Even  the  particular  mines  which  had 
furnished  the  gold  to  these  scriptural  heroes  were  made  out ;  the 
queen  having  received  her"s  from  tiiose  of  Massapa !  A  nugget  valued 
at  1  2,000  crusados  (about  $6,000)  had  recently  been  found  in  Mono- 
motapa,  and  this  was  exhibited  as  a  sample  of  what  was  to  be  found 
in  plenty  throughout  that  highly  favoured  country.  In  a  short  time 
Barreto  got  together  three  ships,  with  a  thousand  adventurers  (mostly 
of  the  gentleman  or  fidalgo  class),  and  abundant  supplies  of  horses, 
camels  and  provisions;  and,  in  April,  1569,  this  expedition  left  the 
Tagus  to  make  a  descent  upon  Solomon's  Ophir.  It  never  seemed 
to  have  occurred  to  the  adventurers  that  Solomon,  in  the  plenti- 
tude  of  his  wisdom,  might  have  had  enough  of  it  to  induce  him  to 
"clean  up"  the  gold  mines  before  he  abandoned  them  to  the  modern 
world.  The  name  Ophir  and  the  25-pound  nugget  were  enough;  so 
off  sailed  these  one  thousand  lunatics,  bound  upon  a  voyage  to  the 
antipodes  in  search  of  a  myth.  Having  successfully  passed  the  Cape, 
they  came  to  anchor  at  the  Quilimane  mouth  of  the  Zambesi  river, 
and  at  once  began  the  ascent  of  that  stream  in  boats.  Upon  reach- 
ing Senna  (long.  35),  where  they  were  hospitably  received  by  the 
Arabian  traders,  whose  poverty  should  have  admonished  them  of  the 
futility  of  their  errand,  they  left  the  river  and  pushed  on  at  once  for 
the  gold-fields.  And  now  their  sufferings  began.  The  tsetse  fly,  the 
marsh  fever,  the  bites  of  reptiles  and  vermin,  the  heat  of  a  tropical 
zone,  the  hf)stility  of  the  natives,  who  knew  from  the  experience  of 
their  race  what  gokl-mini ng  meant  for  them;  all  these  perils  had  to 
be  encountered,  besides  those  of  unaccustomed  diet,  brackish  water 
and  other  privations.  The  result  was  that  when  the  party  reached 
the  mines'*  their  numbers  were  greatly  thinned  and  the  survivors 
were  so  reduced  as  to  be  scarcely  able  to  move  about.  Their  con- 
fidence in  King  Solomon  must  have  been  greatly  shaken  by  what 

'"  Maltc-Brun,  Ml,  So.  "  The  coast  is  ver)' low,  and  m.irincrs  discover  their  aporoach 
to  it  not  so  much  by  their  sight  as  by  the  smell  of  its  fragrant  flowers."    Morse  11,  537. 

"  The  mines  they  reached  were  those  of  Macoronga  and  .Manica,  the  latter  being 
in  lat.  20,  and  the  same  as  those  discovered  by  Nf  auch  and  delineated  in  Wilmot's 
Map  as  Ramakuaban.  Victoria  r)iggings,  Mattoppo  Mines,  etc. 


292  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

they  found  there.  On  the  borders  of  a  sluggish  stream — the  Tatti 
river — which  had  long  been  choked  with  mining  gravel,  were  to  be 
seen  the  pits,  ground-sluices,  and  ruined  ditches  of  some  ancient 
miners,  who,  having  exhausted  the  placers,  or  run  them  out  of  grade, 
had  deserted  them  for  the  quartz-leads  beyond,  and  worked  these 
down  to  the  water  level.  As  for  gold,  there  was  none  to  be  seen."" 
The  negros  could,  indeed,  wash  out  a  few  colours  from  almost  any 
basin-full  of  selected  earth,  but  this  was  an  hour's  work,  and  the  re- 
sult proved  to  be  scarcely  worth  a  vinteim.  Moreover,  negros  were 
not  to  be  obtained  without  violence,  and  when  obtained,  there  were 
no  means  of  supporting  them.^'  There  was  but  a  single  alternative, 
either  to  return  to  Portugal  or  capture  and  immolate  the  natives  by 
dooming  them  to  incessant  labour  and  insufficient  food.  If  these  men 
had  been  human  they  would  have  returned  to  their  ships  at  once;  but 
being  gold-hunters  they  remained  and  condemned  the  natives  to 
mine-slavery,  to  torture  and  death.  Notwithstanding  this  cruel  re- 
solve, and  the  energy  which  was  applied  to  its  execution,  the  gold 
proved  so  scarce,  the  natives  so  difficult  to  enslave,  and  their  own  pri- 
vations so  numerous  that  in  the  course  of  five  years  nearly  the  whole 
of  Barreto's  party,  including  the  Ex-viceroy  himself,  miserably  per- 
ished." And  so  ended  this  search  for  King  Solomon's  mines.  Yet, 
three  centuries  later  it  was  revived  by  a  German  named  Karl  Mauch, 
and  again  a  decade  later  by  an  Englishman  named  St.  Vincent  Ers- 
kine."  Six  years  after  Barreto's  death,  the  entire  piratical  Empire  of 
the  Portuguese  in  the  East,  whose  dominion  was  the  seas  and  coasts, 
and  whose  capital,  the  once  palatial  Goa,  fell  into  the  hands  of  Spain. 
From  that  moment  the  mines  of  the  Zambesi  were  abandoned,  save 
by  those  native  labourers  whose  insignificant  and  desultory  product 

'"  The  so-called  gold  mines  "were  found  in  no  degree  to  correspond  with  the  mag- 
nificent expectations  formed  of  them,  or  of  the  labours  and  dangers  through  which 
they  had  been  reached."     Murray's  "Africa,"  11,  362.     (Edinburgh,  181 7.)  _ 

-'  Murray  tells  an  amusing  story  of  a  native  who  induced  Barreto  to  give  him  a 
magnificent  reward  for  leading  him  to  the  "  silver  mines  of  Chicova,"  and  who,  hav- 
ing "salted  "  a  hole  in  the  earth  with  a  few  pieces  of  silver,  and  obtained  his  reward, 
suddenly  decamped,  leaving  Barreto  to  discover  the  fraud  at  his  leisure. 

'•'^  Barreto,  who  had  not  dared  to  return  to  Lisbon,  died  on  the  Zambesi  in  1574. 
Two  versions  of  this  story  are  given  by  Lock,  10  and  16,  and  one  by  Wilmot,  6;  and 
it  is  astonishing  how  many  blunders  their  brief  narratives  manage  to  comprise.  Lock 
gives  the  date  of  the  expedition  in  one  place  in  the  middle  of  the  i6th  century,  and  in 
the  other  as  1650.  In  one  account  Barreto  reaches  the  mines;  in  the  other,  he  entirely 
fails  to  do  so;  and  as  to  this,  Wilmot  says  the  same. 

^^  While  this  chapter  was  being  written  the  author  was  applied  to  professionally  by 
an  agent  of  the  Portuguese  government  for  particulars  of  King  Solomon's  mines,  in 
order  that  he  might  transmit  them  to  his  sovereign  and  induce  him  to  send  out  a  gold- 
hunting  expedition  from  Portuguese  South  Africa  to  work  them!  When  advised  of 
their  mythical  character,  he  became  highly  indignant,  and  said  he  intended  to  consult 
another  engineer  on  the  subject. 


THE    IM.UNDKR    OK    AFRICA.  -293 

of  gold  continued  to  always  form  a  portion  of  tlie  shipments  from  the 
Coast.  Notwithstanding  the  extravagant  statements  sometimes  to 
be  met  with  in  reference  to  the  auriferous  wealth  of  this  region,"  no 
returns  of  its  production  since  the  Portuguese  occupation  have  come 
under  the  author's  observation  which  warrant  an  estimate  to  exceed 
twenty  million  dollars,  as  follows: 

From  1507,  the  date  of  the  Portuguese  occupation  of 
Sofala,  to  1574,  when  Barreto  perished,  and  gold-min- 
ing by  or  under  the  Portuguese,  came  to  an  end,  about 

two  million  mithcals  or  metigals,"  say §6.000,000 

From  1575  to  iSoS,  a  period  of  234  years,  the  product  of 
the  natives  could  not  have  exceeded  100,000  crusados, 

or  $50,000  a  year,""  say 11,700,000 

From  1S09  to  1S36,  48  years,  at  about  §10.000,'"'  say     .  480.000 

From  1S57  to  1866,  10  years,  at  §j. 500, ■" 25.000 

Since  1866,  say  for  round  figures'' 1,795.000 

Total,  1 507-1897.  390  years,  say $20,000,000 

Or  scarcely  more  than  one  year's  production  of  California,  Australia, 
or  Russia. 

'■•  "  Gold  was  formerly  so  common  in  the  interior  that  many  of  their  (the  Portuguese) 
household  utensils  were  made  of  this  metal."  Macgreggor's  Statistics,  11,  336.  "  The 
gold  mines  yield  more  than  five  million  dollarsa  year,"  Morse,  Geog.,  11.537,  an  opin- 
ion evidently  derived  from  the  Portuguese  statement  of  the  total  product  of  67  years: 
viz.,  two  million  meticals. 

**  Thebasisof  this  statement  will  be  found  in  Macgreggor,  li,  335,  and  Thos.  Baines, 
in  Lock,  16.  The  metigal,  mithcal,  or  metical,  is  an  Arabian  weight  which  varies 
from  60.7  grains  in  Tunis  to  73  grains  in  Aleppo  and  Algiers.  That  of  Damascus  is 
69  grains.  A  metical  of  gold,  nine-tenth  fine,  is  equal  to  about  S3.  Lock  converts  the 
metical  at  about  $2.50,  and  Macgreggor  at  $4.17. 

"  The  following  relates  to  the  entire  gold  trade  of  the  Mozambique  Channel:  "  In 
1593  the  Governor  of  Mozambique,  George  Menzes,  collected  for  himself  and  the 
Viceroy  of  India  one  hundred  thousand  crusados,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  one-third 
of  this  amount  is  now  (t?o3)  annually  produced."  Salt's  \oyage  (iSo<^)  to  Abyssinia, 
p.  63,  quoted  in  Jacob.  373.  Lock.  16,  swells  this  sum  by  a  blundar  into  one  million 
crusados.  In  1733.  when  Galvao  da  Silva  visited  these  regions,  "  the  supply  (of  gold) 
was  very  much  reduced."     Lock,  12. 

"  For  trifling  extent  of  the  product  in  1S23,  see  Lock,  25,  who  quotes  a  statement 
made  by  the  .-\rabs  to  Capt.  Hotelcr. 

'*  In  i8o3  the  entire  gold  product  of  the  Mozambique  region  was  omy  100,000  crus- 
ados.    Lock,  13. 

"  Thos.  Baines,  in  Lock,  17.  says  he  was  informed  by  B.  X.  .\cutt,  of  the  London  & 
Limpopo  Co. .that  down  to  iS72the  Tatti  region  had  yielded  from  1.500  to  2,<X)o  lbs. 
of  gold.  In  1375,  over  100,000  pounds  sterling  in  gold  were  shipped  from  Cape 
Colony;  but  this  may  have  been  the  product  of  more  than  one  year.  Lock.  22.  The 
conjectural  shipment  by  "private  hands"  is  evidently  a  gross  exaggeration.  The 
Colonies  and  IttJia  stated  that  during  the  last  six  years  (this  was  probably  written  in 
iSSi)  over  200,000  pounds  sterling  worth  of  gold  had  been  sent  through  the  Cape 
Commercial  Bank  alone.  Lock,  24.  It  is  not  specified  whether  this  gold  was  the  pro- 
duct of  the  African  fields  or  not.    I'robably  none  of  it  came  from  the  Tatti  region. 


294  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

In  1857  Dr.  Livingstone  travelled  through  this  country,but  although 
a  close  observer  familiar  with  mining  and  mine  indications,  and  aware 
of  the  history  of  this  country,  he  failed  to  notice  the  presence  of  any 
paying  quantity  of  gold  in  either  the  gravels  or  quartz.  He  merely 
noticed  that  the  formerly  great  gold  trade  had  fallen  to  $2,000  or 
$2,500  a  year.  The  discovery  that  this  exhausted  country  was  yet  full 
of  gold  was  reserved  for  the  German  traveller  Karl  Mauch,  who  is  de- 
scribed variously  as  a  "mineralogist,"  an  emissary  of  the  Prussian 
government,  a  geographer  travelling  for  Dr.  Petermann  of  the  Gotha 
Geographical  Journal,  and  a  correspondent  of  the  Natal  Mercury. 
In  1864  this  traveller  discovered  gold-fields  in  Moselikatze's  country 
(lat.  20  S.,  long.  29  E.).  This  is  a  portion  of  the  old  ]Monomotapa, 
and  is  full  of  old  works  of  the  Portuguese.  Mauch  at  once  hastened 
to  inform  the  world  of  his  valuable  find.  By  the  year  1868  he  had 
succeeded,  with  the  aid  of  interested  parties  in  Capetown,  in  getting 
up  a  boom  concerning  the  South  African  gold-fields,  the  natural  re- 
sult of  which  was  a  "  rush  "  to  the  fields  from  Capetown,  and  the  or- 
ganization of  several  mining  companies  in  London.  Among  these 
was  the  London  and  Limpopo  Company,  1870,  and  the  Transvaal 
Gold  Mining  Company,  1872,  capital  $50,000,  both  of  which  enter- 
prises failed. 

In  1875,  Major  St.  Vincent  Erskine  informed  the  Geographical 
Society  of  London  that  he  had  discovered  the  Ophir  of  Solomon  in 
Sofala,  between  the  Limpopo  and  Sabia  rivers;  that  the  Queen  of 
Sheba's  real  name  was  Sabia,  hence  the  name  of  the  river;  that  in 
' '  a  geography  book,  eighty  years  old,  in  his  possession,  it  is  stated  that 
the  Portuguese  exported  thence  annually — (oh,  Major!) — ;^3,ooo, - 
00.0  worth  of  gold  ";  and  that  he  was  anxious  that  everybody  should 
share  with  him  these  important  discoveries. 

From  this  time  to  1883,  when  Baron  Grant  undertook  the  difficult 
task  of  "  getting  up  a  new  deal  "  in  the  South  African  mines,  we  are 
not  aware  of  any  further  efforts  of  the  kind;  but  from  1868  to  nearly 
the  present  time  placer  mining  on  a  small  scale  has  been  carried  on 
by  scattered  parties  of  Boers,  Australians,  and  Englishmen.  The 
product  has  been  small  and  the  miners — on  the  whole — unsuccessful. 

With  the  year  1884  commenced  a  newaerain  the  history  of  mining 
in  Africa,  due  to  the  discovery  of  quartz  or  reef  mines  in  the  Wit- 
watersrand  district  of  the  Transvaal  Republic. 

A  letter  written  from  the  vicinity  a  year  after  the  discover}'  of  these 
mines  will  afford  some  evidence  of  what  was  thought  of  them  at  that 
period: 


THK    PLUNDER    UF    AFRICA.  =95 

In  the  Witwatersraiul  district,  the  golil-bearing  formation  is  what 
is  known  as  "banket,"  a  sort  of  conglomerate  easy  to  reduce.  It 
is  composed  of  a  sort  of  pebbly  quartz  cemented  together  by  fine 
sillicious  sand^  A  piece  of  it  may  easily  be  crushed  beneath  the  foot, 
and  a  little  water  poured  over  a  lump  will  cause  it  to  crumble  at  once. 
Such  is  "banket,"  and  the  gold  is  contained  chiefly  in  the  cement. 
Veins  of  positive  quartz  are  found  in  the  same  reefs  as  the  banket, 
but  the  mills  are  working  e.xclusively  on  the  latter  so  far.  Banket 
runs  in  lodes  or  veins  varying  from  one  to  twenty  feet  wide.  There 
is  sucii  an  abundance  of  this  material  near  the  surface  that  it  is  prac- 
tically inexhaustible,  and  as  deep  as  shafts  have  thus  far  been  sunk, 
it  holds  its  own  in  width  of  vein  and  richness.  Thousands  of  stamps 
may  find  remunerative  employment  night  and  day  fur  years  on  ban- 
ket now  in  plain  sight. 

At  present  nearly  a  thousand  stamps  are  working  steadily  on  the 
banket  in  the  Witwaterstrandt  district  alone,  and  it  is  thought  tliat 
by  this  time  ne.\t  year  si.x  times  that  number  will  be  hard  at  it.  The 
average  clean-up  yields  about  one  and  one-half  ounces  of  gold  to  the 
stamp  per  day.  At  this  rate  some  of  the  companies  have  commenced 
paying  dividends  at  50  per  cent,  a  year  on  the  capital  invested,  and 
shares  are  held  at  ten  and  twenty  times  their  original  cost  a  few  months 
ago.  The  banket  lodes  were  discovered  a  year  ago  by  a  Pretorian 
named  Stuben.  The  district  was  totally  wild  and  uninhabited,  a  bar- 
ren plateau,  considered  fit  for  nothing.  Then  came  the  discovery  and 
inevitable  rush,  and  with  mushroom  spontaneity  there  has  sprung  into 
existence  the  town  of  Johannisberg  already  numbering  six  thousand 
inhabitants. 

The  country  round  about  Johannisberg  for  miles  contains  no  timber. 
Many  of  the  houses  are  queer  things,  built  entirely  of  movable  iron 
sheets  imported  from  England ;  others  are  of  adobe,  or  mud  and  rock. 
It  is  a  regular  gold-field  city,  full  of  rowdyism  and  hard  characters; 
dance-houses  and  saloons  by  the  dozen  are  in  full  swing,  and  robbery 
and  shooting  affrays  are  of  almost  daily  occiH-rence. 

The  following  letter  from  the  South  African  correspondent  of  the 
London  Times,  December,  1886,  will  evince  the  appreciation  in  which 
the  mines  were  held  a  year  or  two  later. 

The  development  of  the  gold  fields  continues  to  absorb  public  at- 
tention. From  every  town  and  village  in  South  Africa,  during  the 
past  three  weeks,  a  stream  of  fortune-seekers  have  wended  their  way 
to  the  DeKapp  and  Witwatersranil.  The  population  of  Harberton 
has  more  than  doubled  and  is  daily  increasing;  stands  for  building 
and  business  sites  are  being  eagerly  purchased  there;  new  syndicates 
are  being  formed  and  new  companies  floated.  The  total  capital  of 
all  the  gold-mining  companies  is  stated  to  be  not  far  short  of  ;^2,ooo,- 
000,  while  their  value,  as  represented  by  the  ruling  share  prices,  is 
nearly  double  that  amount.  In  many  cases  the  realization  of  returns 
is  a  long  way  off.  as  there  is  no  machinery  immediately  available  for 
the  development  of  the  properties;  ingther  instances  some  of  the  com- 


296 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


panics  have  been — even  with  very  inadequate  appliances — very  suc- 
cessful ;  and  it  is  this,  together  with  the  handsome  return  from  ' '  com- 
pany promoting,"  which  hasbeen  the  incentiveto  somuch speculation. 

Of  the  Witwatersrand  fields,  between  Pretoria  and  Hiedelberg, 
some  of  the  capitalists  of  Kimberly  have  secured  gold  properties  from 
which  wonderful  results  are  also  expected.  W.  Knight,  who  has  been 
long  and  favorably  known  in  connection  with  successful  mining  en- 
terprises at  the  diamond  fields,  has  secured  mining  rights  on  the  farm 
of  Driefontein,  where  prospecting  work  has  resulted  in  the  discovery 
of  four  conglomerate  gold-bearing  reefs,  giving  together  an  average 
thickness  of  about  twenty-three  feet,  extending  over  three  and  a-half 
miles  in  length,  with  a  proved  depth  of  about  100  feet.  Adjacent  to 
this,  Messrs.  Rhodes,  Rudd  and  Caldecott  have  purchased  for  ;^io,- 
000  the  properties  of  Reitfontein  and  Witkoppies;  and  several  other 
syndicates  and  individuals  have  secured  mining  privileges  in  the  same 
neighbourhood.  When  companies  are  organized  and  mills  set  to  work 
it  is  expected  that  these  fields  will  give  an  average  return  of  an  ounce 
per  ton,  and  that  the  total  cost  of  extracting  the  gold,  mining  royal- 
ties, and  other  charges,  will  not  be  more  than  15  shillings  per  ton. 

Fifteen  years'  experience  since  this  last  letter  was  written  has  de- 
monstrated that  the  quartz  was  estimated  at  thrice  its  real  value, 
which  is  about  seven  dollars  a  ton.  The  DeKaap  properties  have 
proved  of  little  worth,  and  Barberton  has  not  become  a  metropolis. 

According  to  the  official  returns  issued  by  the  Witwatersrand  Cham- 
ber of  Mines,  the  produce  of  the  Transvaal  mines  has  been  as  is  shown 
in  the  first  column  of  the  following  table,  the  valuation  of  the  gold 
in  the  second  column  being  that  of  the  Chamber  itself — namely, 
^T,  10s.  per  ounce  for  mill  gold,  and  ^3  tor  cyanide  gold,  an  average 
of  about  $16  per  ounce.  The  figures  in  the  third  column  are  those 
of  the  United  States  Mint. 

Produce  of  the    Transvaal  Gold  Mines. 

At  $16 
per  ounce. 

$  562,000 

3.553.952 

6,168,912 

7.917.072 
11,668,288 
19.373.904 
23.655.632 
32,386,624 
36,442,240 
36,494,272 
48,154,848 
61,311,600 
56,000,000 
10,000,000 

It  should  be  remarked  that  the  value  of  the  gold,  as  returned  by  the  mining  com- 
panies to  the  Chamber  of  Mines,  was  a  mean  between  the  two  extremes  shown  above, 
or  about  $18  per  ounce. 


Gold. 

Year, 

Ounces. 

1887 

35.125 

18S8 

222,122 

1889 

385,557 

1890 

494,817 

1891 

729,268 

1892 

1,210,869 

1893 

1.478,477 

1894 

2,024,164 

1895 

2,277,640 

1896 

2,280,892 

1897 

3,034,678 

1898 

3.831.975 

1899 

3,^00,000 

1900 

Est'd. 

As  given  by 

No.  of 

U.  S.  Mint. 

Miners. 

— 

1,000 

— 

5,000 

$7,888,37 

10,000 

10,438,356 

15,000 

14,885,639 

20,000 

23,220,108 

40,000 

28,293,831 

45.000 

39,696,330 

60,000 

43,893,300 

60,000 

43,779,669 

65,000 

57,633,861 

80,000 

79,213,953 

120,000 

71,691,163 

100,000 

— 

15,000 

THE    I'LUNDtR    OK    AFRICA.  297 

From  the  discovery  to  the  closure  of  the  mines  by  the  Transvaal 
government,  who  worked  them  on  its  own  account  from  October, 
1899,  to  May,  1900,  and  then  closed  them  down,  the  entire  product 
of  gold  was  about  350  million  dollars.  As  the  Transvaal  mines  are 
owned  chiefly  in  England,  the  gold  for  the  most  part  has  gone  to 
that  country,  there  to  be  coined  into  those  beautiful  "sovereigns," 
upon  one  side  of  which  is  stamped  Saint  George  and  upon  the 
other  the  good  Queen  "Victoria  by  the  Grace  of  God,"  etc.  Some 
of  the  gold  went  to  the  United  States,  where  it  was  stamped  with  the 
arms  of  the  Republic  and  the  name  of  God — "In  God  we  Trust." 
In  both  of  these  instances,  in  every  instance  where  the  name  of  the 
Almighty  is  stamped  upon  a  coin  of  Transvaal  gold,  the  Boers  regard 
the  act  as  a  sacrilege ;  for  almost  every  ounce  of  it  has  been  obtained 
through  slavery.  Not  such  slavery  as  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese 
inflicted  upon  the  natives  of  America;  but  another  sort  of  slavery: 
a  slavery  that  is  inflicted  without  remorse  and  yet  which  hypocritic- 
ally pretends  not  to  be  slavery  at  all. 

They  say  that  the  mines  of  the  Transvaal  have  been  worked  from 
first  to  last  by  natives,  who  were  entrapped  and  forced  into  them 
against  their  will ;  that  they  were  bought  from  contractors  at  so  much 
per  man,  bound,  strapped,  made  drunk  with  rotten  liquor,  and  thrust 
naked  into  pits  which  avarice  had  dug  and  hypocrisy  has  covered 
over.  The  following  extracts  from  the  carefully-guarded  report  of 
the  Chamber  of  Mines  (a  British  organization),  for  1S96,  have  been 
supplied  to  the  author. 

Towards  the  close  of  1S96  this  Chamber  applied  to  the  Transvaal 
government  for  eight  thousand  additional  native  labourers.  On  the 
part  of  the  government,  Capt.  Dahl  "referred  to  the  disinclination 
of  the  natives  to  work  "  in  the  mines,  and  although  the  government 
had  issued  orders  that  the  mining  companies  should  be  assisted  in 
the  matter,  he  feared  that  natives  could  not  be  got  without  using 
"pressure."  Turning  to  the  Portuguese  authorities  at  Louren(;o 
Manpies,  the  Chamber,  in  September,  1896,  obtained  leave  "to  emi- 
grate natives  from  any  part  of  the  Portuguese  territories,  and  the 
right  to  arrest  any  native  similarly  engaged  who  is  not  in  the  employ 
of  the  Chamber,  or  in  possession  of  direct  authority,  in  writing,  from 
the  government  of  Lourenc;©  Marques."  In  the  same  month  the 
Chamber  resolved  to  reduce  the  wages  paid  to  the  natives,  then  j£i 
or  $5  per  month,  from  20  to  25  per  cent.,  and  steps  were  taken  to 
"prevent  any  disturbance  which  might  arise  from  discontent"  with 
this  arbitary  measure.  It  was  further  resolved  that  the  miners  should 
be  ta.xed  at  the  rate  of  three  shillings  per  native  employed,  of  whom 
there  were  then  seventy  thousand.  The  ta.\  would  yield  ten  thousand 
five  hundred  pounds,  and  the  amount  was  to  be  paid  over  to  the  Rand 


298  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS, 

Native  Labour  Association,  and  if  found  necessary,  a  like  sum  of  ten 
thousand  five  hundred  pounds  was  to  be  raised  and  applied  in  a  sim- 
ilar manner.  Here  were  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  appropriated 
and  confided  to  a  "Native  Labour  Organization  "  for  an  unspecified 
purpose,  which  looks  uncommonly  like  purchasing  slaves.  Mean- 
while, the  natives  escaped  from  the  mines  in  such  great  numbers  as 
to  call  for  new  measures  of  repression.  A  Pass  Law  was  obtained  from 
the  Transvaal  government  which  it  was  expected  would  operate  like 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  1850;  it  authorized  the  arrest  and  deten- 
tion of  any  native  without  a  Pass;  he  was  then  to  be  delivered  to  the 
mine  proprietors.  "  The  object  of  the  new  law  was  to  bring  the  na- 
tives under  effective  control  and  reduce  the  risk  of  desertion  to  a 
minimum.  .  .  .  Many  offers  had  been  made  to  supply  natives 
for  fixed  periods,  at  wages  far  below  those  ruling  (at  that  time),  but 
nothing  could  be  done  under  the  then  existing  conditions,  and  de- 
sertions remained  as  easy  as  ever. "  .  .  .  The  chief  defect  of  the 
old  law  was  that  the  penalty  for  desertion  was  insufficient.  This  was 
ten  shillings,  or  a  week,  with  hard  labour  and  /as/us;  second  offence, 
double ;  subsequent  offences,  at  discretion.  The  new  law,  dated  Decem- 
ber 23,  1896,  raised  the  penalty  for  first  offence  to  ^3,  and  second 
offence  to  ^5,  with  imprisonment,  hard  labour  and  lashes;  and  other 
amendments  to  prevent  desertions.  However,  as  the  Transvaal  go- 
vernment refused  to  execute  the  law,  "the  question  of  regulating  and 
controlling  native  labour  still  remained  a  difficult  one.  "  .  .  .  "Be- 
sides the  harm  done  by  the  indiscriminate  sale  of  liquors  to  the  Kaffirs, 
the  evil  is  intensified  by  the  vile  quality  of  the  drink  generally  sup- 
plied to  them.  ...  As  already  stated,  special  permission  has 
been  given  to  the  Native  Labour  Commissioner  of  the  Chamber  and 
some  few  others  to  engage  natives  in  and  to  emigrate  them  from  Portu- 
guese territories.  The  Boers  having  insisted  upon  the  observance  of 
Articles  131  to  134  of  the  Mining  Regulations,  forbidding  the  run- 
ning of  mining  mills  on  Sundays,  this  Chamber  sent  a  delegation  to 
the  Valksraad  to  represent  that  such  stoppage  would  mean  ruin  to 
the  mine  owners.  A  reduction  of  the  gold  output  by  one-seventh,  or 
14  per  cent.,  would  convert  profitable  mines  into  losing  properties." 
The  point  was  eventually  settled  in  favour  of  the  miners. 
The  scarcity  of  native  labour  checks  the  expansion  of  mining  op- 
erations. .  .  .  Success  depends  on  the  natives  who  work  our 
mines.  ,  .  .  The  object  of  the  Pass  Law  was  to  identify  na- 
tives who  deserted  from  their  employers,  that  they  might  be  brought 
back  to  the  mine  from  which  they  had  deserted."  The  Reports  of 
1897  and  1898  contain  similar  passages.  The  British  mine-owners 
continually  pressed  the  Boer  government  for  harsher  measures  to  the 
natives,  and  although  the  Boers,  anxious  not  to  arouse  resentment, 
seemingly  yielded  to  this  pressure,  they  did  all  they  could  to  defeat 
it,  by  neglecting  to  execute  the  Pass  Law.  The  running  of  mills  on 
the  Sabbath  day  was  also  offensive  to  them,  and  in  this  respect  they 
likewise  made  concessions  which  were  very  unpalateable  to  their  peo- 
ple.   But  all  in  vain.    The  mining  companies  desired  to  be  free  of  all 


THK    IM.INDKR    OK     AFRICA.  299 

control,  SO  that  they  could  work  the  "niggers"  their  own  way.    The 
result  was  antagonism  and  war. 

Without  expressing  any  further  opinion  of  iiis  own  concerning  the 
merits  of  this  contention,  the  author  gladly  turns  from  the  unsav- 
oury subjects  of  mine-slavery  and  Sabbath-tlay  gold  to  the  econom- 
ical aspects  of  the  Witwatersrand  mines.  It  will  be  observed  that 
they  have  consumed  the  labour  of  about  640,000  men  for  a  year. 
From  10  to  15  per  cent,  of  this  number  were  English,  Australian  and 
American  miners,  whose  salaries  ranged,  as  mining  superintendents, 
from  ^10,000  a  year  down  to  ^^i  a  day,  and  who,  therefore,  absorbed 
a  very  considerable  proportion  of  the  entire  yield  of  this  ill-gotten 
metal.  Leaving  this  out  of  consideration  for  the  present,  if  we  divide 
the  numbers  of  miners  employed  into  the  whole  product,  it  would  only 
amount  to  S547  per  annum,  or  about  $1.50  per  diem!  So  it  is  quite 
evident  that  without  forced  labour,  without  slavery,  and  without  work- 
ing the  mills  on  the  Sabbath,  the  industry  could  not  have  been  made 
to  pay.     Its  profits  have  therefore  been  the  profits  of  forced  labour. 


300  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

THE  CONGO  FREE  STATE. 

The  Rev.  John  B.  Murphy,  of  the  American  Baptist  Mission,  who  has  just  reached 
England,  comes  from  Equatorville,  a  very  important  centre  of  the  State  Ciovernment, 
situated  800  miles  in  the  interior,  and  has  lived  at  various  stations  on  the  Congo  for 
the  past  nine  years.  He  left  Equatorville  on  May  9,  and  remained  on  the  upper  river 
until  the  middle  of  August,  1896.      Mr.  Murphy  said: — 

The  attitude  of  the  natives  of  the  Congo  Free  State  is  everywhere  unfriendly,  and 
if  the  people  do  not  universally  rebel  against  authority,  it  is  because  they  are  reduced 
to  a  state  of  despair.  If  possible  they  leave  the  territory.  Two  of  the  most  flourish- 
ing towns  in  Mr.  H.  M.  Stanley's  time,  situated  at  Stanley  Pool — viz.,  Kintamo  and 
Kinchassa — are  now  no  more,  and  the  people  have  gone  over  to  the  French  Congo. 
Besides  the  natives  of  towns  I  have  named,  many  people  have  left  the  main  river  and 
gone  into  the  interior,  in  order  to  escape  the  arbitary  demands  of  the  State.  Difficul- 
ties have  arisen,  too,  between  the  State  and  the  porters,  and  if  the  requisite  number  of 
carriers  were  not  forthcoming,  detatchments  of  soldiers  were  sent,  with  orders  to  cap- 
ture all  the  women  they  could  find.  Several  Christians  were  arrested  in  this  manner. 
The  natives  and  missionaries  remonstrated  and  presented  a  letter  to  the  governor 
without  getting  any  redress.  The  people  were  so  enraged  at  these  outrages  that  they 
took  matters  into  their  own  hands.  They  killed  three  white  men  and  met  and  defeated 
the  State  forces  in  more  than  one  pitched  engagement. 

I  have  seen  these  things  done  and  have  remonstrated  with  the  State  in  the  years 
18SS,  iSSg,  and  1894,  but  never  got  satisfaction.  I  have  been  in  the  interior  and  have 
seen  the  ravages  made  by  the  State  in  pursuit  of  this  iniquitous  trade.  In  one  place 
I  stood  by  the  side  of  the  river  and  heard  a  little  boy  describe  how  he  had  seen  the 
Belgians  shoot  people  for  not  fetching  rubber,  and  at  the  same  time  he  pointed  to  the 
flag-staff  to  which  the  poor  victims  had  been  tied,  and  which  still  bore  the  bullet  and 
bloodmarks.  Let  me  give  an  incident  to  show  how  this  unrighteous  trade  aff'ects  the 
people.  One  day  a  State  corporal  who  was  in  charge  of  the  post  of  Lolifa  was  going 
round  the  town  collecting  rubber;  meeting  a  poor  woman  whose  husband  was  away 
fishing,  he  said,  "  Where  is  your  husband  ?"  She  answered  by  pointing  to  the  river, 
and  he  then  said,  "  Where  is  his  rubber?"  She  answered,  "It  is  ready  for  you," 
whereupon  he  said,  "  You  lie,"  and  lifting  his  gun,  shot  her  dead.  Shortly  afterwards 
the  husband  returned  and  was  told  of  the  murder  of  his  wife.  He  went  straight  to 
the  corporal,  taking  with  him  his  rubber,  and  asked  why  he  had  shot  his  wife.  The 
wretched  man  then  raised  his  gun  and  killed  the  corporal.  The  soldiers  ran  away  to 
the  headquarters  of  the  State,  made  misrepresentations  of  the  case,  with  the  result 
that  the  commissaire  sent  a  large  force  to  support  the  authority  of  the  soldiers  :  the 
town  was  looted,  burned,  and  many  people  killed  and  wounded. 

In  November  last  there  was  heavy  fighting  upon  the  Bosira,  because  the  people  re- 
fused to  give  rubber,  and  I  was  told  upon  the  authority  of  a  State  officer,  that  no  less 
tlian  1,890  people  were  killed. 

Upon  another  occasion,  in  the  month  of  November,  1894,  some  soldiers  ran  away 
from  a  State  steamer,  and,  it  was  said,  went  to  the  town  of  Bompanga.  The  State 
sent  a  message  telling  the  chief  of  the  town  to  give  them  up.  He  answered  that  he 
could  not,  as  the  fugitives  had  not  been  in  his  town.  The  State  sent  the  messenger 
a  seconci  time  with  the  order,  "  Come  to  me  at  once,  or  war  in  the  morning."  The 
next  morning  the  old  chief  went  to  meet  the  Belgians,  and  was  attacked  without 
provocation.  He  himself  was  wounded,  his  wife  killed  before  his  eyes,  and  her  head 
cut  off  in  order  that  they  might  possess  the  brass  necklet  that  she  wore.  Twenty-four 
of  the  chief's  people  were  also  killed,  and  all  for  the  paltry  reason  given  above. 

Again,  the  people  of  Lake  Muntumba  ran  away  on  account  of  the  cruelty  of  the 
State,  and  the  latter  sent  some  soldiers  in  charge  of  a  coloured  corporal  to  treat  with 
them  and  induce  them  to  return.  On  the  way,  the  troops  met  a  canoe  containing  seven 
of  the  fugitives.  Under  some  paltry  pretext  they  made  the  people  land,  shot  them, 
cut  off  their  hands,  and  took  them  to  the  commissaire.  The  Muntumba  people  com- 
plained to  the  missionary  at  Irebu,  and  he  went  down  to  see  if  the  story  was  true.  He 
ascertained  the  case  to  be  just  as  they  had  narrated,  and  found  that  one  of  the  seven 
was  a  little  girl  who  was  not  quite  dead.  The  child  recovered,  and  she  lives  to-day, 
the  stump  of  the  handless  arm  witnessing  against  this  horrible  practice. 

The  people  of  the  district  of  Lake  Muntumba,  of  Irebu,  and  Lokolala,  and  all  the 
Mobangi  towns  have  crossed  over  to  the  French  side.  The  French  treat  them  kindly, 


THK    PLUNDER    OK    AFRICA.  301 

and  are  glad  to  get  people.  The  people  did  not  run  away  without  great  provocation, 
for  it  meant  star\ation  to  them,  all  their  gardens  and  their  homes  being  upon  the  State 
side.  Even  then  the  .State  could  not  leave  them  in  peace  ;  they  heard  that  they  came 
over  at  night  to  their  old  homes  to  get  food,  and  they  stationed  canoes  and  laid  in 
wait  for  them,  with  orders  that  the  soldiers  should  shoot  as  many  as  they  caught  ;  and 
to  my  knowledge  they  shot  seven  people  in  one  night. 

The  white  ofVicers  do  not  know  the  language  of  the  people  that  they  govern,  nnd 
trust  too  much  to  their  native  st>ldiers,  who  are,  as  a  rule,  men  belonging  to  a  hostile 
tribe,  whose  chief  aim  in  life  is  to  phuuler.  These  men  are  sent  out  to  light  very  often 
without  any  responsible  otVicer  being  with  them,  with  the  result  that  many  cruelties 
are  being  perpetrated  which  might  have  been  avoided.  It  is  impossible  for  the 
Governt)r  of  IJoma — four  weeks'  journey  from  Stanley  Tool,  which  ought  to  be  the 
real  seat  of  Government — to  manage  his  vast  and  unwieldy  territory;  so  that  the  com- 
missiares  and  petty  gt)vernors  of  the  interior  districts  have  almost  unlimited  power. 
The  officers  of  the  State  are  young  and  inexperienceti  ;  they  do  not  come  out  as  colon- 
ists to  develop  the  country,  but  in  order  that  they  may  receive  quick  promotion,  the 
Congo  decoration,  and,  above  all,  to  get  money.  I  have  been  told  by  naval  and  other 
officers  of  the  State,  that  a  certain  sum  per  head  is  paiil  by  the  (lovernment  to  the 
commissaires  of  districts  from  which  slaves  are  received,  and  to  the  naval  oftkers  who- 
bring  them  into  camp.  These  wretched  slaves  soon  tind  that  they  have  only  changed 
masters.  .About  fifty  per  cent,  are  in  a  starving  condition.  Let  me  (said  Mr.  Murphy 
in  conclusion),  again  just  revert  to  the  rubber  question,  which  is  by  far  the  most  press- 
ing, being  accountable  for  most  of  the  horrors  perpetrated  on  the  Congo.  It  has. 
reduced  the  people  to  a  state  of  utter  despair.  Each  town  in  the  district  is  forced  to. 
bring  a  certain  quantity  to  the  heailquarters  of  the  conimissaire  every  Sunday.  It  is; 
collected  by  force,  the  soliiiers  drive  the  people  into  the  bush.  If  they  will  not  go, 
they  are  shot  down,  their  left  hands  cut  off  and  taken  as  trophies  to  the  conimissaire. 
The  soldiers  do  not  care  who  they  shoot  down,  and  they  more  often  shoot  poor  help- 
less women  and  harmless  children.  These  hands,  the  hands  of  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren, are  placed  in  rows  before  the  conimissaire,  who  counts  them  to  see  that  the 
soldiers  have  not  wasted  the  cartridges.  The  commissaire  is  paid  a  comniission  of 
about  id.  a  pound  upon  all  the  rubber  he  gets,  therefore  he  gets  as  much  as  he  can. 

The  King  of  the  Belgians  is  our  very  good  friend.  CIreat  Britain  is  the  effective 
protector  of  his  realm.  However,  the  atrocities  in  the  Congo  State,  of  which  he  is 
Sovereign,  have  reached  a  point  at  which  interference  with  his  sovereignty  could  not 
have  been  far  off,  but  for  his  appointment  in  September  of  a  Commission  charged  with; 
the  protection  of  the  natives.  Even  now  we  have  no  assurance  that  the  worthy  priests- 
and  ministers  composing  the  Commission  will  be  able  to  influence  the  judicial  authori- 
ties to  whom  they  are  to  report.  Those  authorities  would  have  probably  interfered 
on  their  own  motion  if  they  had  been  minded  that  way.  .\nd  the  Aborigines'  I'rotec- 
tion  Society  aptly  shows  the  King,  in  a  long  memorial  it  has  sent  him  and  Lord  .Salis- 
bun,-,  that  the  proposed  measures  are  quite  inade(|uate.  The  ordinances  made  pre- 
viously, were  flagrantly  neglected.  The  free  traile  provisions  of  the  Berlin  Ceneral 
.Act  have  been  contravened,  and  the  countr)'  has  been  worked  for  all  it  is  worth  "  in 
Utter  disregard  of  the  early  pledges  that  the  interests  of  the  natives  should  be  cared 
for,  their  customs  and  usages  respected,  and  nothing  done  to  deprive  them  of  their 
lands  and  means  of  living." 

A  modified  slaver>'  h.is  been  established;  the  people  are  compelled  to  sell  their  rub- 
ber or  ivory  to  the  State  for  what  it  chooses  to  give  ;  and  their  lands  have  been  added 
to  the  public  domain.  The  case  of  Mr.  Stokes,  who  was  foully  done  to  death  by 
Major  Lothaire.  as  yet  with  impunity,  shows  that  even  white  men  cannot  look  for  jus- 
tice from  the  administrators  of  the  Congo  State, or  King  Leopold  himself, and  of  course 
the  natives'  appeals  are  never  heard.  They  "  are  at  the  mercy  of  Europeans,  who  con- 
sider themselves  entitled  to  all  the  ivory,  rubber  and  other  produce  that  the  natives  can 
be  induced,  by  any  process,  to  bring  them."  The  regulations  do  not  provide  properly 
for  the  protection  of  non-military  natives.  And  this  one  fact  goes  a  long  way  to  show 
that  offences,  even  when  proved,  are  practically  winked  at.  In  May,  1S90,  .\L  Deghil- 
agc,  chief  of  the  Manyanga  Station,  flogged  two  of  his  black  servants  to  death,  was 
tried  for  it,  and  "  in  cf)nsider3tion  of  his  having  been  drunk  at  the  time,"  was  lined  20/. 
But  in  December,  1893,  this  floggcr  was  decorated,  being  given  the  ""Star  of  Service.'" 

London  Chronicle,  Dee,  /y,  iSifb. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


JAPAN. 


Enormous  treasure  obtained  from  Japan — Parallel  between  the  inhabitants  of  New 
Spain  and  Japan — Many  circumstances  common  to  both — The  principal  differences 
consisted  in  the  American  belief  in  a  coming  Messiah  and  the  Japanese  familiarity 
with  horses  and  with  steel  weapons — The  precious  metals  in  Japan — Operations  of 
the  Portuguese  to  acquire  them — The  means  employed — Slavery,  priestcraft,  and  in- 
trigue— Penances  and  Indulgences — Introduction  of  the  Inquisition — Sedition  and 
civil  war — Plot  to  overthrow  the  native  government — The  plot  discovered  and  the 
Portuguese  banished  from  the  country' — Closure  of  the  ports  for  over  two  centuries — 
Curious  memorial  of  a  Japanese  Finance  Minister  to  his  government — The  mines  of 
Japan — Production  of  the  precious  metals. 

THAT  during  the  seventeenth  century,  Europe  obtained  from 
Japan  so  great  a  sum  in  the  precious  metals  as  360  million 
dollars,  is  a  statement  that  will  probably  be  received  with  surprise, 
for  it  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  usual  works  of  reference.  Yet  there  is 
little  room  to  doubt  its  truth.  It  is  supported  by  the  testimony  of  both 
Japanese  and  European  writers. 

From  1545  to  1597  the  exports  of  the  precious  metals  from  Japan, 
chiefly  by  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  to  Manilla  and  Macao,  were 
about  30  million  dollars,  nearly  all  gold.  Martin's  "China,"  i,  292, 
317,  and  Sir  Stamford  Raffles'  "  Hist,  of  Java."  From  1598  to  1610 
the  exports  were  about  16  millions  gold  and  49  millions  silver.  Hil- 
dreth.  From  161 1  to  1646  the  exports  were  about  25  millions  gold 
and  113/^  millions  silver.  Arrai  Tsikugono-Kamisama  in  "The 
Riches  of  Japan,"  quoted  in  Klaproth's  Noveau  Journal  Asiatique, 
Vol.  II.  The  electrum  Koban  (that  of  1605-22)  is  reckoned  at  $6.68 
gold  and  $0.32  silver;  the  silver  tael  of  that  period  at  $1.50.  The 
exports  of  this  period,  as  given  by  Hildreth,  are  evidently  copied 
from  Arrai's  statement.  From  1647  to  1671  the  exports  were  16  mil- 
lions gold  and  57  millions  silver.  Arrai.  From  1672  to  1705  we  have 
no  separate  data.  From  1706  to  1840  the  exports  were  about  five 
millions  eold  and  about  one  million  silver. 


JAPAN.  303 

In  addition  to  these  sums,  Raffles  states  that  Japan  exported  un- 
listed gold  and  silver  to  China.  There  were  also  considerable  quan- 
tities of  gold  and  silver  mingled  with  the  exported  copper.  It  will 
therefore  not  be  far  wrong  to  estimate  the  total  exports  during  the 
course  of  250  years  at  about  360  million  dollars,  of  which  perhaps 
two-thirds  were  of  silver  and  one-third  gold. 

Mr.  Lock  (p.  349)  says  that  between  1649  and  167 1  the  annual  ex- 
portations  of  the  precious  metals  from  Japan  by  the  Dutch,  until  it 
was  stopped  by  the  imperial  edict  of  the  last  named  year,  "averaged 
nearly  three  million  dollars;  but  little  less  than  that  of  the  Portu- 
guese in  the  previous  century."  This  statement  is  fragmentary  and 
defective.  It  omits  from  view  the  exports  of  the  iSth  and  19th  cen- 
turies, while  as  to  the  17th,  it  fails  to  observe  that  the  edict  did  not 
really  put  an  end  to  the  exportations.  It  was  an  edict  of  the  Shogun- 
ate,  and  owing  to  various  reasons,  was  largely  evaded.  Neverthe- 
less, Mr.  Lock's  statement  admits  an  average  exportation  of  over 
three  millions  a  year  during  the  i6th  century,  and  adds  more  than 
sixty  millions  to  the  1 7th.  It  is  evidently  drawn  from  the  same  sources 
as  the  account  more  fully  given  above. 

The  circumstances  under  which  this  treasure  was  obtained  are  not 
only  similar  to  those  which  attended  the  despoilment  of  Spanish 
America,  they  are  connected  with  it  in  other  ways.  Columbus'  voy- 
age across  the  western  ocean  was  to  discover  this  very  Japan  which 
Polo  had  described  two  centuries  before,  and  which  Pinto  was  to 
stumbl^e  upon  half  a  century  later.  The  object  of  the  adventurers 
who  followed  in  the  wake  of  Columbus  to  America,  and  in  that  of 
Pinto  to  Japan,  was  the  same — to  obtain  from  the  inhabitants  of  those 
countries  their  accumulations  of  the  precious  metals.  The  internal 
condition  of  New  Spain,  and  of  Japan,  at  the  period  of  the  arrival  of 
the  strangers  was  much  alike,  and  from  the  few  respects  in  which 
they  differed,  we  gather  a  world  of  historical  meaning. 

The  first  arrivals  of  Europeans  in  Japan  were  those  of  two  Portu- 
guese who  were  wrecked  on  the  coast  in  1542.  In  1545,  Mendez 
Pinto,  a  Portuguese  adventurer  and  pirate,  was  driven  to  Jajian  (so 
he  claimed)  by  stress  of  weather.  Within  a  year  after  this  event,  and 
attracted  by  the  glowing  reports  which  Pinto  carried  to  Ningpo  (in 
China)  of  the  great  wealth  and  magnificence  of  Japan,  the  Portuguese 
at  Ningpo  fitted  out  nine  ships  to  trade  with  or  conquer  the  newly- 
found  islands,  as  opportunity  offered.  Of  these  vessels  only  one  sur- 
vived the  perils  of  the  voyage,  and  the  intention  to  piratically  con- 
quer Japan  was  necessarily  abandoned.      The  voyage  was,  however, 


304  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

not  without  important  fruits.  Tlie  Portuguese  fell  to  trading  with 
the  natives,  and  the  profits  were  so  great — amounting  to  1,20c  per 
cent,  upon  the  value  of  their  cargo,  the  avails  of  which  they  carried 
to  Ningpo  in  gold — that  upon  their  return  new  expeditions  were  fitted 
out,  and  Japan  was  practically  opened  to  the  commerce  of   Europe. 

In  outward  appearance  the  natives  of  New  Spain  (that  is  to  say, 
Mexico,  Central  America,  the  Isthmus,  and  the  northern  and  westera 
shores  of  South  America)  and  those  of  Japan  bore  at  that  period  no 
little  resemblance  to  one  another.  They  were  dark  of  visage,  short 
of  stature,  lightly  clad,  brave  in  action,  intelligent,  amiable,  and,  as 
their  visitors  regarded  them,  partially  civilized,  though  we  of  to-day 
may  well  doubt  if  in  this  respect  they  fell  a  whit  behind  their  visitors. 
The  condition  of  society  in  Mexico,  Peru,  etc.,  and  in  Japan  was- 
much  the  same.  All  these  countries  were  in  a  feudal  condition,  and 
it  was  owing  to  this  circumstance  that  Cortes  was  enabled  to  miake 
allies  of  the  Tlascalans,  Pizarro  to  divide  the  rival  Incas,  and  Xavier 
to  make  a  dupe  of  Bingo.' 

Both  the  Mexicans,  Peruvians  and  Japanese  were  ignorant  of  the 
use  of  firearms,  though  the  latter  were  familiar  with  gunpowder. 
The  character  of  their  European  visitors  was  the  same.  Cortes  and 
his  desperate  followers  had  stolen  away  from  Havana  without  autho- 
rity, and  as  a  band  of  pirates.  When  Pizarro  set  forth  to  discover 
and  ravage  Peru,  associating  himself  with  Pedrarias,  De  Luque,  and 
Almagro,  as  co-partners,  he  was  a  pirate.  Pinto  was  on  board  of  a 
Chinese  corsair  when  he  was  driven  into  Japan.  The  subsequent  ex- 
pedition from  Ningpo  was  of  a  piratical  character,  and  but  for  the 
loss  of  eight  of  the  ships,  its  promoters  might  with  rude  hands  have 
at  once  grasped  those  riches  for  which,  in  the  end,  they  were  content 
to  trade  and  intrigue. 

But  here  the  parellel  ceases.  The  Aztecs  believed  in  a  Messiah 
who  might  appear  at  any  time,  and  when  Cortes  craftily  announced 
himself  as  the  emissary  of  this  heavenly  personage,  Montezuma  was 
credulous  enough  to  believe  him,  to  yield  him  possession  of  his  per- 
son, and  to  advise  his  people  to  surrender  themselves  to  the  strang- 
ers. The  Japanese,  wha  were  Shintos  and  Buddhists,  looked  for  their 
Messiah  only  at  an  appointed  time,  and  in  the  bigotry  of  an  ancient 
creed  they  regarded  tne  strangers  more  with  disdain  than  fear. 

The  Aztecs  looked  upon  the  Spaniards  as  children  of  heaven;  the 

'  Bingo  was  a  Japanese  daimio  whom  the  Portuguese  converted  to  Christianity,  and 
whom  they  employed  to  betray  and  enslave  his  countrymen  in  order  to  further  the 
sordid  aims  of  the  strangers. 


JAPAN.  305 

Japanese  treated  the  Portuguese  as  a  parcel  of  barbarians,  shrewd 
and  acquainted  with  many  useful  arts,  but  not  at  all  to  be  held  in 
reverence.  The  Spaniards  appeared  off  the  shores  of  America  in 
great  ships  with  lofty  sails,  the  like  of  which  the  natives  had  never 
seen  before.  The  Portuguese  visited  Japan  in  Chinese  junks,  with 
whose  appearance  the  natives  were  quite  familiar.  The  Spaniards 
landed  in  Mexico  and  Peru  with  horses,  animals  whose  wonderful 
strength  and  speed  rendered  them  a  greater  source  of  dread  to  the 
natives  than  their  masters.  The  Portuguese  carried  no  horses  to 
Japan;  nor.  had  they  done  so,  would  they  have  created  any  surprise, 
for  the  horse  was  common  in  that  country.  The  most  formidable 
weapon  possessed  by  the  Me.xicansand  Peruvians  was  a  wooden  club, 
studded  with  flints.  The  Japanese,  on  the  contrary,  were  as  well  ac- 
quainted with  iron  and  steel  as  their  visitors;  and  whereas  the  latter 
carried  each  a  sword  about  their  persons,  the  former  carried  two. 

The  features  of  resemblance  between  the  Aztecs  and  Japanese, 
which  most  nearly  concerned  their  future  relations  with  the  Euro- 
peans, were  their  common  feudal  condition  and  lack  of  firearms. 
The  features  of  dissimilarity  were,  first,  the  American  belief  in  an 
immediate  Messiah,  and  the  familiarity  of  the  Japanese  with  horses 
and  steel  weapons.  But  for  the  superiority  of  the  Japanese  over  the 
American  aborigines  in  these  respects  there  is  little  reason  to  doubt 
that  the  fate  of  Me.xico  and  Peru  would  have  also  been  that  of  Japan 
— to  fall  beneath  the  arms  of  a  few  marauders  whose  single  purpose 
was  the  acquisition  of  gold,  no  matter  at  what  cost  of  life,  or  of  ling- 
ering misery  in  the  hideous  subterranean  prisons  which  they  called 
mines. 

At  the  period  of  the  arrival  of  the  Portuguese  in  Japan,  the  cur- 
rency of  the  country  substantially  consisted  of  rice  for  agricultural 
rents,  public  ta.xes,  and  many  other  kinds  of  payments;  together 
with  gold,  silver,  and  iron  or  copper  coins,  issued  by  the  Shogun.  It 
seems  to  be  pretty  well  established  from  the  narratives  of  Marco  Polo 
in  the  thirteenth,  and  Mendez  Pinto  in  the  si.xteenth  century,  and  the 
ease  with  which  the  first  foreigners  were  enabled  to  obtain  returns  in 
silver  and  gold  for  their  cargoes,  that  at  the  time  of  their  arrival 
these  metals  existed  in  Jaj)an  in  considerable  quantities.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  Shogun,  and  perhaps  also  the  Mikado,  as  well  as  each 
of  the  great  daimios,  possessed  a  reserve  of  these  metals,  chiefly  gold, 
in  slugs  or  rude  hammered  forms.  After  the  arrival  of  the  Portu- 
guese these  slugs  were  coined  into  kobans,  boos,  etc.,  and  exchanged 
for  European  weapons,  dress-stuffs,  medicinal  drugs,  and  other  com- 


3o6  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

modities.  It  was  when  this  stock  gave  signs  of  becoming  exhausted 
that  the  Portuguese  entered  upon  those  transactions  which,  on  being 
exposed,  led  to  their  expulsion  from  the  country,  and  its  virtual 
closure  to  the  world  for  more  than  two  centuries. 

These  operations  first  assumed  importance  during  the  shogunate 
of  lye-Iasu  (posthumous  title,  Gongen  or  Gangin),  which  began  in 
the  year  1603.  They  consisted  first  of  winning  over  Gongen  and, 
many  of  the  great  daimios  to  the  project  of  opening  the  native  mines 
of  gold  and  silver,  and  of  working  them  with  their  own  subjects,  who 
were  to  be  condemned  as  slaves  for  this  purpose;  and  next,  of  ob- 
taining the  metals  thus  produced  from  their  owners  by  means  of 
ecclesiastical  dues,  penances,  and  indulgences.  The  instruments  of 
this  vile  scheme  were  slavery  and  a  sordid  priestcraft,  both  of  which 
the  Portuguese  were  the  first  to  introduce  into  Japan.  Says  Griffis: 
"The  arrival  of  these  foreigners  was  the  seed  of  troubles  innumer- 
able. The  crop  was  priesthood  of  the  worst  type,  political  intrigue, 
religious  persecution,  the  Inquisition,  the  slave  trade,  the  propagation 
of  Christianity  by  the  sword,  sedition,  rebellion,  and  civil  war.  .  .  . 
All  foreigners,  especially  Portuguese,  then,  were  slave-traders;  and 
thousands  of  Japanese  were  bought  and  sold  and  shipped  to  Macao 
in  China  and  to  the  Philippines.  .  .  .  Even  the  Malay  and  negro 
servants  of  the  Portuguese  speculated  in  the  bodies  of  Japanese  slaves, 
who  were  bought  and  sold  and  transported.  .  .  .  Such  a  picture 
of  foreign  influence  and  of  Christianity,  which  is  here  drawn  in  mild 
colours,  as  the  Japanese  saw  it,  was  not  calculated  to  make  a  per- 
manently favourable  impression  on  their  minds."  In  another  place 
Griffis  states  that  Okubo,  a  Christian  convert  and  Governor  of  Sado, 
promised  by  the  Christian  priests,  in  view  of  the  treasonable  plot  of 
161 1,  to  be  made  hereditary  Emperor  of  Japan,  and  really  a  catspaw 
in  their  deeper  design  connected  with  the  abstraction  of  the  precious 
metals,had  thousands  of  other  "  Christian  converts,"  his  countrymen, 
working  for  him  in  the  mines  of  the  province  over  which  he  ruled, 
and  was  about  to  betray. 

The  lowest  servitude  known  to  the  Japanese  before  the  arrival  of 
Europeans  was  a  mild  form  of  feudal  villeinage,  which  kept  the  peas- 
ant in  his  own  province  and  at  work  in  the  fields.  Religion  sat  lightly 
upon  these  happy  islanders,  and  the  bonzes  were  rather  their  welcome 
companions  than  their  gloomy  masters  and  inquisitors.  The  Portu- 
guese changed  all  this:  they  converted  villeinage  into  chattel  slavery, 
and  religion  into  an  instrument  of  robbery,  torture  and  oppression. 
The  Jesuits  acquired  their  ascendancy  over  the  natives  by  preaching 


JAPAN.  307 

a  religion  artfully  filled  with  liberal  promises  for  all  classes.  This 
they  called  Christianity:  it  was  in  reality  mere  demagogy,  which 
was  propagated  the  more  readily  by  employing  the  forms  and  para- 
phernalia of  the  religion  it  was  destined  to  supplant.  "The  very 
idols  of  Buddha  served,  after  a  little  alteration  with  the  chisel,  for 
images  of  Christ."  When  these  devices  failed,  others  were  resorted 
to.  Fire  and  sword,  as  well  as  preaching,  were  employed  as  instru- 
ments of  conversion.  Wy  these  and  other  means  they  rapidly  made 
a  million  of  "communicants,"  including  many  of  the  daimios,  mili- 
tary leaders,  officers  of  the  fleet,  and  other  jiersonsof  influence,  and 
at  the  head  of  these  communicants  they  placed  themselves. 

Through  the  control  thus  obtained  they  induced  the  "christian- 
ized "  daimios  to  consign  their  vassals  to  the  mines,  where  thousands 
of  them  miserably  perished,  though  not  before  they  had  extracted, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  instigators  of  this  tyranny  and  their  country- 
men and  abettors,  the  Portuguese  traders,  a  portion  of  those  vast 
sums  of  treasure  which  were  shipped  to  Europe.  Another  portion  of 
these  sums  was  obtained  directly  by  the  Portuguese  priests,  under 
the  pretence  of  releasing  the  souls  of  the  natives  and  of  their  ances- 
tors from  a  purgatory  which  the  priests  themselves  had  invented.' 

These  measures  could  not  long  be  practiced  upon  so  intelligent  a 
race  as  the  Japanese  without  e.xciting  suspicion  of  their  true  char- 
acter; but  the  country,  notwithstanding  its  numerous  mines,  was 
poor;  the  people  were  separated  into  feuds,  and  the  daimios  longetl 
for  those  European  luxuries  which  the  foreigners  offered  them  in  ex- 
change for  a  metal,  whose  only  cost  to  them  was  the  sweat  and  blood 
of  their  vassals.  Nevertheless,  a  reckoning  day  came  at  last.  In 
161 1  the  Portuguese  were  convicted,  by  documentary  proof,  of  a  de- 
sign to  seize  the  Shogun  and  enthrone  a  usurper,  one  of  their  own 
creatures,  in  his  place;  whereupon  the  Shogun  made  war  upon  them 
anil  their  native  allies,  until  in  1615  they  were  defeated,  and  in  1624 
every  Portuguese  was  banished  the  land.  In  this  war,  the  last  in 
which,  until  very  recently,  the  Japanese  were  engaged,  more  than  one 
hundred  thousand  lives  were  sacrificed.' 

The  Dutch  had  arrived  in  Japan  previous  to  these  occurrences, 
their  first  voyage  having  been  made  in  the  year  1600.  Dow.n  to  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  against  the  Portuguese  the  former  had  acquired 
but  little  influence,  and  accomplished  but  little  trade  with  the  natives. 
Actuated  by  jealousy  of  the  Portuguese,  a  jealousy  which  was  sharp- 

'*'The  poor  natives  at  home  often  pawned  or  sold  themselves  .is  slaves  to  the 
Spaniards  and  rortuguese."     Griffis,  244.  *  (.iriftis,  pp.  252-6.  292. 


308  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

ened  by  sectarian  and  patriotic  hatred,  for  the  Dutch  were  Protest- 
ants and  Holland  was  a  rebellious  province  of  Spain,*  they  opened 
the  eyes  of  the  Japanese  to  the  arts  of  the  Portuguese,  and  thus  has- 
tened their  expulsion. 

The  Dutch  trade  commenced  from  the  time  when  lye-Iasu  declared 
war  upon  the  Portuguese  and  their  adherents,  viz.,  in  1611.  From 
1624  to  1853  the  Dutch  were  the  only  Europeans  permitted  to  trade 
with  Japan,  and  from  1639  they  were  confined  to  an  islet  (Deshima) 
close,  in  fact  attached,  to  the  port  of  Nangasaki,  limited  to  a  few  ves- 
sels a  year,  and  restricted  in  their  intercourse  with  the  natives  by  the 
most  exacting  and  insulting  regulations.  For  the  sake  of  the  enor- 
mous profits  which  the  trade  yielded  at  first,  they  bore  these  condi- 
tions with  fortitude,  and  for  their  reward  managed  to  obtain  about 
one-half  of  the  total  exports  of  the  precious  metals  from  Japan.  Very 
little  of  this  was  procured  before  1640,  or  after  1706,  when  through 
the  medium  of  the  artificial  prices  (in  zenni)  fixed  by  the  Japanese 
upon  their  merchandise,  including  the  precious  metals,  the  trade  be- 
came unprofitable. 

The  Japanese  were  probably  moved  to  this  policy  of  restriction  by 
the  desire  of  terminating  that  slavery  of  the  mines  which  had  been 
greatly  extended,  if  not,  indeed,  at  first  introduced  by  the  Portuguese ; 
but  in  carrying  it  out,  the  feudal  state  of  the  country,  and  respect  for 
its  powerful  lords,  obliged  the  native  statesmen  to  assign  a  different 
reason  in  its  behalf.  This  was  the  fear  of  exhausting  the  deposits  of 
the  precious  metals.  Says  a  native  memorial  of  the  period:  "A  thou- 
sand years  ago,  gold,  silver,  and  copper  were  unknown  in  Japan,  }'et 
there  was  no  lack  of  necessaries.  The  earth  was  fertile,  and  pro- 
duced the  best  sort  of  wealth.  Gongen  ^  was  the  first  prince  who 
caused  the  mines  to  be  diligently  worked,  and  during  his  reign  an  in- 
conceivably great  quantity  of  gold  and  silver  was  extracted  from 
them.  These  metals  greatly  resemble  the  bones  of  the  human  body, 
inasmuch  as  what  is  once  extracted  from  the  earth  is  not  reproduced, 
if  the  mines  continue  to  be  thus  rapidly  wrought  they  will  ere  long 
be  exhausted. 

"  Since  these  metals  were  exhumed,  the  heart  of  man  has  become 

■*  In  1555  the  crown  of  the  Netherlands  was  inherited  by  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  who 
soon  after  his  accession  commenced  those  persecutions  which  eventually  resulted  in 
the  revolt  and  freedom  of  the  Low  Countries.  In  1567  Alva  was  sent  to  Holland;  in 
159S  the  crown  fell  to  Philip  III.  of  Spain  and  Portugal  (Portugal  belonged  to  the 
Spanish  Crown  from  1580  to  1640),  and  thus  at  the  period  of  the  arrival  of  the  Dutch 
in  Japan,  both  Holland  and  Portugal  belonged  to  Spain. 

^  This  was  either,  as  previously  stated,  the  Shogun  lye-Iasu,  who  was  entitled 
"  Sho  ichi  i  To  sho  Dai  Gongen."  or  his  son  Hidetada.  The  regnal  period  of  the  first 
was  1603-4,  and  of  the  second  1605-22.     Griffis,  pp.  273  and  285. 


JAPAN.  309 

more  and  more  depraved.  With  the  exception  of  medicines  (Euro- 
pean drugs)  we  can  dispense  with  everything  tliat  is  brought  to  us 
from  abroad.  The  stuffs  (cloths)  and  other  articles  are  of  no  real 
advantage  to  us.  If  we  squander  our  treasure  in  exchange  for  them 
what  sliall  we  trade  upon  ?  Let  the  successors  of  Gongen  reflect  upon 
this  matter,  and  the  wealth  of  Jai)an  will  last  as  long  as  the  heavens 
and  the  earth."  " 

The  gold  of  Japan  has  been  largely  obtained  from  placers;  the 
quartz  mines  having  been  chiefly  opened  in  comparatively  recent 
times.  The  placer  deposits  occur  in  about  one-half  of  all  the  civil 
districts  into  which  Japan  is  divided,  and  lie  either  in  the  present 
valleys,  or  else  in  the  former  (parallel)  valleys,  of  the  existing  rivers; 
not  in  transverse  valleys,  beds,or  benches,  as  in  California  and  Chile. 
For  the  most  part  the  auriferous  gravel  of  Japan  is  comparatively 
poor,  the  average  yield  not  exceeding  two  or  three  cents  worth  of 
gold  to  the  cubic  yard  of  material.  Numerous  tests  yielded  i  to  2 
grains  of  gold  per  cubic  yard.  The  average  amount  of  gold  in  large 
fields  did  not  exceed  32<|  cents  in  value  to  the  cubic  yard  of  gravel. 
The  richest  gravel  found  in  Yesso  yielded  less  than  7  cents  per  cubic 
yard,  while  the  average  assay  value  of  the  best  fields  was  only  5^4 
cents.  The  first  native  washings  usually  yield  about  65  per  cent,  of 
these  amounts;  the  second  washings  add  15  to  20  percent. ;  the  third 
washings  usually  bring  the  total  yield  up  to  about  90  percent,  of  the 
assay  value.  The  extraction  of  probably  120  to  150  million  dol- 
lars worth  of  gold  fr(jm  gravel  thus  po.ir  bespeaks  great  privation, 
suffering,  and  loss  of  life  to  the  feutlal  peasants,  who  were  forced  to 
this  work  by  the  exactions  of  their  lords  and  the  sordid  intrigues  of 
the  Europeans,  of  whom  these  nobles  had  become  the  dupes. 

Mr.  Isaac  Titsingh,  who  for  fourteen  years  was  the  agent  of  the 
Dutch  East  India  Company  at  Deshima,  maile  a  collection  of  Japan- 
ese moneys,  which  began  with  issues  assigned  to  the  seventh  cen- 
tury before  the  christian  xra.  In  1S18  this  collection  was  sent  to 
Paris,  and  there  entrusted  to  M.  Klaproth  for  arrangement.  The 
first  issues  appear  to  have  been  entirely  of  bronze.  Those  which 
purport  to  be  earlier  than  the  7th  century  A.  D.  are  probably  false. 
In  A.  D.  203  the  Japanese  plundered  Corea  of  eighty  shijiloads  of 
gold,  silver  and  other  precious  merchandise;  a  circumstance  that 
evinces  the  Japanese  appreciation  of  the  precious  metals  at  an  early 
period  of  their  progressive  career.    In  .\.  I).  645  (9th  Jurukia),  says 

*  Memorial  presented  to  the  ijovernmcnt  of  the  .Shogun  by  a  Japanese  Finance 
Minister  in  1710.  quoted  in  Martin's  "  China,"  I,  :o2. 


3IO  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Titsingh,  occurred  the  first  native  coinage  of  bronze  zenni,  a  state- 
ment which  implies  that  his  earlier  issues  were  slugs,  ingots,  or  other 
uncouth  pieces,  not  coins.  The  Japanese  zenni  were  modelled  after 
the  Chinese  chuen — round,  with  a  square  hole  in  the  middle.  In 
A.  D.  604  (12th  Suiko),  the  Empress  of  Japan  ordered  the  bronze 
image  of  Siaka  (the  Buddhic  pope)  to  be  cast  into  coins  and  a  plaster 
image  to  be  set  up  in  its  place.  In  the  same  year  a  supply  of  gold 
was  obtained  from  Corea,  whether  by  plunder  or  trade  is  not  men- 
tioned. In  669  or  670  silver  mines  were  opened  in  Japan,  and  in 
675  other  silver  mines  in  the  island  of  Tsushima,  which  lies  midway 
between  Japan  and  Corea.  From  the  silver  thus  obtained  there  ap- 
pears to  have  been  struck  an  issue  of  coins,  all  of  which  were  retired 
by  the  Emperor  in  682,  and  replaced  with  cast  bronze  zenni.  In 
708  and  715  new  copper  mines  were  opened;  and  according  to  Mr. 
William  Bramsen's  "Japanese  Chronological  Tables,"  Tokio,  1880, 
this  was  the  year,  708,  when  the  first  bronze  zenni  were  cast.  But 
here  occurs  a  conflict  of  evidence.  Mr.  Tinsingh  fixes  this  event  in 
465;  Mr.  Bramsen  says  708;  while  the  Dai-nihon-Kuwahei-Shi,  a  na- 
tive work,  says  698,  adding  that  these  coins  were  valued  at  one- 
fourth  of  their  weight  in  silver.  It  goes  on  to  say  that  in  721  this 
valuation  was  lowered,  or  that  of  the  silver  coins  raised,  until  the 
proportion  was  i  to  25.  The  zenni  of  this  period  were  struck  in 
the  provinces  of  Chikugen,  Harima,  Suwo,  Nagato  and  elsewhere. 
In  722  the  relative  value  of  bronze  and  silver  in  the  coins  was  altered 
to  I  to  50;  and  in  760  gold  coins  were  added  to  the  previous  issues. 
In  the  coins  of  760  the  ratios  of  value  between  the  metals  were  i 
gold=io silver;  and  i  silver=io  copper.'  These  ratios  are  evidently 
arbitrary  and  of  Brahminical  sacerdotal  origin,  with  no  relation  what- 
ever to  the  market  value  of  the  metals  at  the  time,  either  in  Japan  or 
any  country  with  which  it  had  commercial  intercourse. 

In  connection  with  the  sacerdotal  attitude  of  the  Mikado  should 
be  mentioned  another  circumstance :  The  date  of  the  first  coinage  of 
zenni,  A.  D.  698,  is  the  result  of  a  computation  based  upon  the  Greek 
calendar,  while  the  date  A.  D.  708,  which  not  only  appears  in  Bram- 
sen, but  also  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  is  based  upon  the  Roman 
calendar.  Mr.  Bramsen  adds  that  "  the  first  comage  of  copper  in 
Japan,  A.  D.  708,  was  adopted  for  a  new  Nengo  "  (aera).  The  same 
discrepancy  of  ten  years  exists  between  the  Greek  and  Roman  Anno 

'  From  the  native  work  quoted  in  the  te.xt,  as  translated  by  W.  Walanobe  for  Mr. 
C.  Netto,  Professor  of  Mining  at  the  University  of  Tokio  (Yeddo), and  in  iSSo  kindly 
.furnished  by  the  latter  to  the  author  of  the  present  work. 


JAPAN.  311 

Mundi."    The  two  Japanese  dates  corresponding  to  A.  D.  698  and  70S 
must  therefore  be  regarded  as  one. 

In  749-50  the  gold-and-copper  (quartz)  mines  of  Suruga  and  the 
gold  mines  of  Oshiou  were  opened.  It  is  from  this  date  that  began 
the  official  annals  of  mining  in  Japan.  In  the  Kanaba  mines  are  to 
be  seen  ancient  tunnels,  over  two  miles  in  length,  all  cut  with  hand- 
tools,  evidences  that  when  these  works  were  constructed  the  use  of 
gunpowder  was  unknown.  "  One  of  these  tunnels  is  said  to  have 
been  the  scene  of  a  desperate  fight  between  the  rival  miners  of  two 
provinces,  whose  workings,  driven  from  opposite  sides  of  the  moun- 
tain, met  in  this  place."  A  similar  story  is  told  of  one  of  the  ancient 
Roman  mines;  probably  invented  in  both  cases  in  order  to  emphasize 
the  precision  with  which  the  galleries  were  driven  by  the  engineers 
of  the  underground  surveys. 

The  electrum  or  gold  and  silver  mines  of  tlie  island  of  Sado  are 
among  the  oldest  and  richest  in  Japan.  They  have  been  opened  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years  and  are  still  worked  in  some  places,  the 
produce,  however,  not  equalling  the  cost.  Yet,  the  women  who  carry 
the  ores  on  their  backs  from  the  mines  to  the  works  receive  but  four 
cents  a  day  for  their  services.  Lock.  Many  of  the  mines  of  this  dis- 
trict are  water-logged,  and  will  need  a  vast  outlay  to  render  them 
again  workable.  In  the  first  quarter  of  the  last  century  300  miners 
lost  their  lives  by  the  flooding  of  one  of  them. 

In  1205  several  hundred  miners  from  the  Oshiou,  or  Koshiou,  pro- 
vince of  Nippon,  crossed  over  to  the  island  of  Yesso  and  attacked  the 
native  Ainos,  at  that  time  in  possession  of  the  gold  placers  of  Musa 
and  Toshibets,  drove  the  natives  away  and  jumped  their  locations 
In  thirteen  years'  time  the  usurpers  took  out  some  §21,000  worth  of 
gold — an  average  of  about  $5  per  year  per  man — then  the  Ainos  ral- 
lied, attacked  and  massacred  them  all!  Lock.  Less  than  seventy 
years  after  this,  to  wit,  in  1274,  Kublai-Khan's  envoys  reported  to 
Marco  Polo,  then  living  in  China,  that  the  Japanese  possessed  "gold 
in  the  greatest  abundance,  its  sources  being  ine.vhaustible ;  but  as  the 
King  (the  Mikado)  does  not  permit  of  its  being  exported,  few  mer- 
chants visit  the  country,  nor  is  it  frequented  by  much  shipping  from 
other  ports.  To  this  circumstance  are  we  to  attribute  the  extraor- 
dinary richness  of  the  sovereign's  palace,  according  to  what  we  are 
told  by  those  who  have  had  access  to  the  place.  The  entire  roof  is 
covered  with  a  plating  of  gold,  in  the  same  manner  as  we  cover  houses, 
or  more  properly  churches,  with  lead.  The  ceilings  of  the  halls  are 
*  r)el  Mar's  "  Worship  of  .Vugustus  Ccvsar,  "  chap,  vii,  sub  anno  B.  C.  5492. 


312  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

of  the  same  precious  metal;  many  of  the  apartments  have  small 
tables  of  pure  gold  of  considerable  thickness;  while  the  windows  also 
have  gold  ornaments.  So  vast,  indeed,  are  the  riches  of  the  palace 
that  it  is  impossible  to  convey  an  idea  of  them."  Travels  of  Marco 
Polo,  p.  569. 

Such  is  the  immortality  of  a  well-told  Lie,  that  this  second-hand 
story  of  Kublai-Khan's  envoys  travelled  the  whole  length  of  Asia 
and  Europe  to  Venice,  thence  to  Spain,  thence  with  Columbus  to 
America  and  with  De  Soto,  half-way  across  America,  until  it  prema- 
turely perished  in  the  arid  wastes  of  Colorado;  but  not  before  it  had 
enjoyed  a  triumphant  career  of  more  than  270  years. 

According  to  the  more  veracious  Kaempfer,  "gold  is  dug  up  in 
several  provinces  of  the  Japanese  Empire.  The  Emperor  (Mikado) 
claims  the  supreme  jurisdiction  over  all  the  mines  in  his  dominions, 
and  demands  two-thirds  of  all  that  is  procured;  but  of  late,  as  I  am 
informed  (writing  in  1698),  the  veins  not  only  run  scarcer,  they  do 
not  yield  nearly  the  same  quantity  of  gold  as  formerly."  Hist,  of 
Japan,  i,  107. 

The  prerogative  of  gold  here  adverted  to,  appears  to  have  arisen 
from  the  sacred  character  attached  to  the  metal  by  that  venerable 
religion  of  Asia,  from  which  all  its  other  religions  have  either  sprung, 
or  else  by  which  they  have  become  modified.  The  religion  of  Japan 
is  nominally  Buddhism;  Shinto  meaning  not  a  religion  but  a  Way  of 
Life.  On  the  other  hand,  the  establishment  of  a  sovereign-pontiff, 
in  the  person  of  the  Mikado,  is  not  Buddhic,  but  Brahminical;  and 
so  is  the  ordinance  of  Sacred  Gold.  However,  this  ordinance,  that 
is  to  say,  so  far  as  the  production  of  gold  is  concerned,  like  many 
others  pertaining  to  the  Japanese  pontificate,  was  usurped  by  the 
Shogun,  whether  before  or  during  the  Portuguese  intrigues  for  gold, 
is  not  determined.  At  all  events,  the  date  of  the  Shogun's  ursupa- 
tion  of  the  coinage  of  gold  is  fixed  in  1598,  when  Taiko  Sama  struck 
temporal  coins  of  that  metal.  Hildreth,  213;/.  The  usurpation  of 
the  prerogatives  by  the  Shogunate  was  accompanied  by  so  radical  an 
abatement  of  the  duty  on  production  that  it  amounted  to  virtual 
abandonment. 

In  1 6 10  new  discoveries  of  electrum  mines  were  made  in  the  island 
of  Sado,  which  thereupon  became  the  centre  of  the  Portuguese  in- 
trigue with  the  daimio  Okubo,  and  the  i'mmediate  cause  of  the  civil 
war  and  the  exclusion  of  foreigners  which  followed. °     Li  1613  still 

'  The  Abbe  Raynal,  i,  204,  also  accuses  the  Portuguese  adventurers  of  marr)'ing 
the  Japanese  heiresses,  merely  in  order  to  possess  themselves  of  their  wives'  fortunes. 


JAPAN.  313 

Other  mines  were  opened  in  the  same  vicinity,  and  these  were  worked 
at  intervals  and  by  manual  labour  down  to  1S69,  when  machinery  was 
introduced.  In  18S0  the  principal  main  shaft  was  down  600  feet  and 
two  of  the  mines  were  connectetl  by  a  gallery  3,000  feet  long.  The 
ores  yielded  about  $7  gold  ami  $15  silver  to  the  ton;  but  at  an  annual 
loss  to  tiie  government  (which  worked  them)  of  about  §25,000  a  year. 
The  works  employed  1,080  persons,  including  120  females,  and  pro- 
duced about  20  tons  of  ore  per  tliem;  facts  which  bespeak  a  large 
proportion  of  dead  work,  waste  rock,  and  fruitless  exploration. 

The  product  of  the  precious  metals  in  Japan  has  never  been,  and 
will  probably  never  become  important,  unless,  indeed,  the  newly-dis- 
covered leads  in  Formosa  slujuld  develop  a  bonanza.  During  the 
past  fourteen  years  the  average  annual  product  of  gold  has  been  25,- 
000  fine  ounces,  say  §500,000,  and  of  silver  about  1,500,000  ounces, 
say  §1,000,000.      The  details  are  shown  in  the  following  table: 

Production  of  Gold  and  Silver  in  Japan. 


Year. 

Gold,  oz. 

Silver,  oz. 

Year. 

Gold,  oz. 

Silver,  oz. 

i836 

8,827 

767,656 

1S93 

21.540 

1.916.549 

18S7 

14.963 

1,084,852 

1S94 

24,150 

2,229,906 

1SS8 

16,768 

1,147.113 

1895 

25,553 

2,338.229 

1889 

19.057 

1,376.436 

1S96 

30.981 

2,078,396 

1S90 

24,709 

1,382,611 

1S97 

33.3S5 

1,748,609 

1S91 

23.632 

1.703,878 

1898 

3S.253 

I  660.200 

1892 

22.54S 

1,890.010 

1899 

*65,ooo 

1.500.000 

*  The  production  for  the  year  1899  is  estimated.  New  and  productive  gold  mines 
have  recently  been  opened  in  the  islands  (if  \'css<)  and  Formosa,  the  two  extremities 
of  the  Empire. 

About  one-third  of  the  gokl  and  one-sixth  of  the  silver  sliown  in 
the  table  were  obtained  from  government  mines;  the  remainder  from 
private  properties.  Since  the  demonetisation  of  silver  by  the  AVest- 
ern  world  the  miners  of  America  and  Australia  have  abandoned  the 
silver  mines  and  have  prospected  for  gold,  with  the  result  of  decreas- 
ing the  product  of  the  white  metal  and  iiureasing  the  product  of  the 
yellow.      A  similar  movement  is  to  be  discerned  in  Japan. 

Owing  to  the  long-continued  isolation  of  Japan  from  the  commer- 
cial world,  the  history  of  the  precious  metals  in  that  empire  is  closely 
and  instructively  connected  with  its  monetary  systems,  and  these 
with  the  progress  of  its  civilization,  a  pretty  full  account  of  which 
monetary  systems  is  printed  in  the  author's  work  on  "  Money  and 
Civilization,"  chapter  XX.  This  account  ends  with  the  following 
language: 

The  Japanese  are  a  singularly  energetic  and  intelligent  race,  their 
country  is  insular  and  free  from  the  dangers  of  foreign  interference. 


314  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

its  topography  is  favourable  to  industry,  the  natural  resources  are 
abundant,  the  soil  is  fertile,  the  rains  are  perennial,  the  climate  is 
temperate,  the  government  is  paternal,  and  the  religion  tolerant,  and 
of  a  character  that  offers  no  obstacle  to  progress.  Yet,  until  quite 
recently,  Japan  had  made  no  progress  for  centuries.  The  land  is 
only  sparsely  inhabited  and  partially  cultivated,  the  mechanical  arts 
are  in  their  infancy,  the  fine  arts  have  enjoyed  but  scant  development, 
and  science  is  almost  unknown.  As  for  recent  progress,  it  is  merely 
the  result  of  European  intercourse,  and  is  not  known  as  yet  to  pos- 
sess inherent  force.  Let  any  of  the  causes  that  have  been  assigned 
by  writers  on  civilization,  as  a  reason  for  social  retardation  or  decay, 
be  applied  to  Japan,  and  it  will  fail  to  explain  the  backwardness  of 
this  country.  The  sun  shines  there  as  brightly  as  elsewhere,  the  rain 
falls  as  favourably  to  man,  the  soil  is  as  rich,  the  government  is  as  mild; 
yet  Japan  from  the  societary  point  of  view,  has  been  a  petrifaction, 
except  at  rare  intervals,  ever  since  its  history  began. 

These  rare  intervals  of  progress  offer  the  only  solution  to  an  other- 
wise unaccountable  phenomenon.  In  every  instance  these  were  in- 
tervals of  increasing  moneys  and  rising  prices.  The  same  corres- 
pondence between  these  occurrences,  which  Hume  observed  in  the 
affairs  of  England  and  Alison  in  those  of  Rome,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
history  of  Japan.  Not  high,  but  rising  prices,  have  invariably  been 
follow^ed  by  progress;  and  not  low,  but  falling  ones,  by  decay.  The 
stationary  condition  which  has  characterized  Japan  is  to  be  imputed 
neither  to  the  influence  of  nature  nor  the  operations  of  individual 
men,  but  rather  to  those  governmental  arrangements,  foremost  among 
which  stands  Money,  which,  instead  of  promoting  the  development 
of  civilization,  has  proved  to  be  an  obstacle  and  a  drag. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

PLINDKR    OF    ASIA. 

Darius — .Alexander — The  Romans — The  Huns — Moslem  raids — Mahmoud  of 
Ghazni — Mahomet  (.Ihor — Sack  of  Hindu  temples — Sack  of  Guzerat,  Delhi  and  Hen- 
ares — Genghis  Khan — Kublai  Khan — Timur,  the  Tartar — Second  sack  of  Delhi — 
I?aber — Third  sack  of  Delhi — Sevaji — Sack  of  Sural — Nadir  Shah — Fourth  sack  of 
Delhi — Ravages  of  the  Portuguese — Plunder  of  the  sea-ports  and  islands — The  Dutch 
— The  French — The  British — Enormous  wealth  drained  from  India  and  remitted  to 
Europe — Present  poverty  of  the  country — Its  exposure  to  famine — Degradation  and 
desperation  of  the  people — Plunder  of  India  and  China. 

ABOUT  B.  C.  500  Darius  of  Persia  undertook  that  series  of  mili- 
tary expeditions,  which,  like  the  later  ones  of  the  Spaniards  in 
Mexico  and  Peru,  appear  to  have  had  for  their  principal  object  the 
acquisition  of  the  precious  metals;  for  after  having  attained  this  ob- 
ject their  other  fruits  seem  gradually  to  have  been  abandoned.  Dar- 
ius acquired  and  plundered  the  Punjab,  Bactria,  Asia  Minor,  includ- 
ing Phoenicia  (at  that  time  the  sole  depot  of  the  metallic  products  of 
Spain),  the  Greek  islands,  Thrace,  Egypt,  etc.,  and  carried  away  to 
Persia  probably  the  bulk  of  the  gold  of  placer  origin  which  was  then 
to  be  found  in  Hither  India,  Europe,  and  Africa.  Of  this  gold  there 
are  numerous  coined  specimens,  known  as  staters  or  darics,  still  in 
existence  in  the  various  numismatic  cabinets  of  Europe. 

Besides  obtaining  this  spoil,  Darius  levied  tributes  in  gold  and 
silver  upon  the  conquered  countries,  amounting  annually  to  13,710 
Euboic  talents  of  gold,  a  sum  which  has  been  computed  as  equivalent 
to  about  three  millions  sterling.  According  to  the  inference  of  (iibbon. 
this  revenue  was  the  surplus  after  discharging  the  expense  of  main- 
taining the  army  and  provincial  administrations.  Whatever  the  amount 
was,  the  tribute  was  probably  paid  for  only  a  few  years,  because  not 
long  afterwards  the  conquered  countries  recovered  their  independence. 

Cyrus,  in  his  plunder  of  Asia  Minor,  secured  a  booty  of  24,000 
Roman  pounds  weight  of  gold,  the  total  value  of  which  in  our  present 
American  coinage  would  be  about  five  million  dollars,  "  besides  ves- 


3l6  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

sels  and  other  articles  of  wrought  gold,  as  well  as  thrones  (solia)  of 
gold,  a  plane-tree  and  a  vine,  all  made  of  that  metal.  .  .  .  He 
also  carried  off  500,000  talents  of  silver,  and  a  silver  vase  called  the 
Vase  of  Semiramis,  of  15  talents  weight,  the  Egyptian  talent  being 
equal,  according  to  Varro,  to  eighty  of  our  pounds.  "  Pliny,  xxxiii,  15. 
If  the  half  million  "  talents"  of  silver  are  also  meant  as  weights  the 
statement  is  incredible ;  but  if  they  are  meant  as  talents  of  account  their 
value  was  five  gold  staters, or  about  $25,  each,  in  American  coin.  The 
half-million  silver  talents  would  therefore  be  worth  about  twelve  to 
fifteen  million  dollars  in  American  coin.  Hist.  Mon.  Systems,  Amer- 
ican edition,  p.  95;;. 

Alexander  was  the  next  conqueror  who  plundered  Asia,  and  it  is 
likely  that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  precious  metals  which  Darius 
had  acquired,  now  found  their  way  back  to  the  Occident.  In  addition 
to  this,  a  prodigious  spoil  was  acquired  by  Alexander  from  India. 
Strabo,  xv,  iii,  9,  sums  up  the  result  of  his  expeditions  at  iSo.ooo 
talents,  but  does  not  specify  either  the  metal  or  the  talents.  The 
rendition  of  these  weights,  or  sums,  whichever  they  were,  has  en- 
gaged the  industry  without  determining  the  doubts  of  Letronne, 
Boeckh,  Arbuthnot,  De  Vienne,  and  numerous  other  metrologists. 
"VVe  shall  refrain  from  entering  upon  this  perplexing  subject  and  con- 
tent ourselves  with  quoting  the  conclusion  of  Athenaeus,  who  says, 
VI,  19:  "When  Alexander  had  brought  into  Greece  all  the  treasures 
of  Asia  then  really  there  did  shine  forth,  to  use  the  language  of  Pin- 
dar, '  wealth  predominating  far  and  wide. '  "  Not  only  were  the  treas- 
uries of  Babylon,  Susa,  Persopolis,  and  Pasagarda,'  sacked,  the  mines 
of  Bactria  were  plundered  and  the  graves  of  Persia  and  Hither  India 
despoiled.  Gmelin,  who  visited  the  mines  of  Bactria  in  the  early 
part  of  the  18th  century,  and  inspected  what  remained  of  the  old 
workings,  states  that  the  ancients  excavated  the  passages  under- 
ground with  incredible  pains,  and  in  numerous  instances  lost  their 
lives  by  "caves."  The  underground  passages  were  so  narrow  that 
the  workmen  must  have  crawled  and  wriggled  through  them  like 
worms,  in  order  to  get  at  the  quartz,  from  which  they  picked  the  gold 
(as  he  believed)  with  the  sharpened  fangs  of  boars.      How  they  ob- 

'  Exped.  Alex.,  vol.  ill,  pp.  i6-i3.  Consult  also  note  to  Rawlinson's  Herod., 
396.  Garda,  grad,  and  gorod,  are  variants  of  a  Gothic  word,  meaning  city.  The 
name  of  a  city  on  the  Gulf  of  Persia,  ending  with  garda,  is  an  indication  of  its  settle- 
ment by  some  Gothic  tribe.  Traces  of  a  Getic  or  Gothic  invasion  of  this  portion  of 
Asia  are  to  be  found  in  many  ancient  authors.  As  worshippers  of  Buddha  the  Getae 
were  called  Budini,by  Herodotus:  from  their  custom  of  drinking  out  of  their  enemies' 
skulls  (still  commemorated  in  the  toast  of  "  Skoll!  ")  they  were  classed  as  Anthropo- 
pagi,  by  Pliny,  vii,  2,  etc.     Herodotus  and  Strabo  call  the  Buddhists  Musioi. 


PLUNDER    OK    ASIA.  317 

tained  light  and  air  or  removed  the  worthless  rock  and  debris,  is  not 
described.  The  writer  himself  having  visited  many  ancient  cjuartz 
mines,  found  that  the  passages,  though  narrow  and  irregular,  were 
large  enough  to  enable  the  miner  to  swing  a  hammer,  and  that  as  for 
picking  out  gold  from  quartz  with  boars'  teeth,  the  marks  on  the  rocks 
very  plainly  indicated  that  such  teeth  were  made  of  steel.  What  was 
the  origin  of  the  Asian  gold  or  how  originally  procured,  the  followers 
of  Alexander  did  not  stop  to  enquire.  The  form  in  which  they  ob- 
tained It  was  Oriental  coins,  plate  and  jewelry.  Much  of  thisap[)ears 
to  have  been  coined  anew  in  the  field,  probably  as  fast  as  it  was  plun- 
ilered.  To  enable  him  to  pursue  this  policy,  Alexander  must  have 
carried  in  his  train  a  corps  of  expert  mintners.  The  same  practice 
is  known  to  have  been  afterwards  followed  by  Hannibal  in  Italy. 

Between  the  expeditions  of  the  Greeks  and  those  of  the  Romans, 
Asia  does  not  appear  to  have  been  despoiled  by  any  people  who  car- 
ried its  treasures  to  distant  countries.  As  the  Roman  plunder  of  .Vsia 
is  mentioned  in  another  portion  of  this  work,  it  only  remains  t(i  de- 
scribe the  various  plunderings  which  took  place  in  later  times.  Among 
these  the  first  in  order  was  the  invasion  and  plunder  of  Northern 
India,  by  the  White  Huns,  in  the  fifth  century  of  our  ;era.  Of  this 
expedition  we  have  only  the  most  meagre  account.  It  is  mentioned 
by  the  historian  Priscus,  who  was  in  the  camp  of  Attila,  \.  D.  448.  It 
is  also  alluded  to  by  the  Chinese  writer,  Sung-yun,  A.  I).  5^0,  who 
calls  the  concjuering  people  the  '*  Yesha,"  or  lesha.  In  the  Skanda 
(lupta  inscription,  .V.  D.  450  to  480,  they  are  called  "  Hunas. "  All 
we  know  of  this  conquest,  is  that  immediately  afterwards  the  Huns 
commenced  to  strike  gold  and  silver  coins,  of  which  some  examples 
are  still  extant.  From  these  coins  we  gather  the  names  of  about  a 
score  of  Hunnish  kings,  whose  reigns  are  believed  to  have  extended 
from  .\.  D.  402  to  A.  D.  554.  On  the  coins  of  one  of  them,  by  name 
Toramana,  appears  the  date  "52,"  which  is  supposed  to  commemo- 
rate the  year  of  the  Indian  Invasion.  This  conqueror  is  said  to  have 
built  or  dedicated  a  temple  to  the  Sun  at  Mooltan,  on  the  Ravi,  an 
affluent  of  the  Chenaub.     (Num.  Chron.  1894,  in.) 

The  Moslem  raids  in  India  began  as  early  as  the  eighth  century, 
but  they  exercised  no  noticeable  influence  upon  the  history  of  the 
precious  metals  until  the  eleventh  century,  when  the  celebrated  Mah- 
moud  of  Ghazni,  or  Ghuzni  (in  Afghanistan)  conducted  that  series  of 
predatory  expeditions  which  eventually  transferred  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  metallic  wealth  of  India  to  the  Arabian  Empire  in 
Asia  Minor  and  Europe.     These  expeditions  began  soon  after  Mah- 


3l8  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

moud's  elevation  to  his  father's  throne,  A.D.  997,  and  continued  at 
intervals  until  the  period  of  his  death,  in  1030.''  This  conqueror  suc- 
cessively plundered  Batinda,  about  1000;  Nagercot,  1008,  with  its 
rich  temples  and  immense  treasures;  Tanesar,  loio,  with  its  temple 
and  treasure;  Muttra,  1017;  Lahore,  1023;  and  Guzerat,  in  1024,  with 
the  enormously  rich  temple  of  Somnath. 

Professor  Wilson  thinks  that  the  wealth  of  this  famous  temple  has 
been  greatly  exaggerated,  places  no  confidence  in  Ferishta's  account 
of  the  hollow  idol  filled  with  gold  and  precious  stones,  and  ascribes 
the  ' '  crores  "  and  ' '  millions  "  of  treasure  to  the  mistakes  of  Dow  and 
Gibbon;  whilst  Raynal,  (11,  341)  believes  that  the  Afghans  gathered 
immense  spoils  which  they  "buried  under  ground  in  their  wretched 
and  barren  deserts."  It  is  difficult  to  discern  the  truth  amid  these 
conflicting  accounts.  Certain  is  it  that  after  the  return  of  these  plun- 
dering expeditions  to  Ghazni,  Mahmoud  celebrated  his  success  in 
"triumphant  feasts,  alms  to  the  poor  and  presents  to  persons  distin- 
guished for  supposed  merit  or  sanctity,"  (Garrett,  37,)  and  equally 
certain  is  it  that  a  vast  current  of  the  precious  metals  began  to  flow 
from  Afghanistan  and  India  to  the  Arabian  Empire.  This  flow  was 
interrupted  in  1152,  when  the  Ghorians  captured  and  sacked  Ghazni 
itself,  but  it  was  followed  a  quarter  of  a  century  later  by  another  in- 
flux of  spoil,  when  Mahomet  Ghor  captured  and  sacked  the  splendid 
city  of  Delhi.  In  1 195  this  same  chieftain  sacked  Benares  and  loaded 
four  thousand  camels  with  the  wealth  of  that  sacred  city.  Follow- 
ing a  similar  career  to  that  of  Mahmoud,  he  made  nine  predatory  ex- 
peditions into  India  and  accumulated  treasures  which  almost  rivalled 
those  of  his  great  predecessor. 

India  was  next  plundered  in  A.  D.  1217,  by  the  Mongol  Tartars, 
under  Genghis  Khan.  This  conqueror,  who  claimed,  like  Alexander, 
to  be  an  incarnation  of  the  Deity,  marched,  in  12 14,  from  the  vicinity 
of  Lake  Baikal  to  the  conquest  of  China.  After  capturing  and  sack- 
ing upwards  of  ninety  cities  of  the  Empire,  including  Pekin,  his  forces 
only  rested  when  they  had  penetrated  to  the  Shan-tung  peninsular 
and  ravaged  Corea.  At  Pekin,  the  besieged,  "when  their  ammuni- 
tion was  spent,  discharged  ingots  of  gold  and  silver  from  their  en- 
gines." (Gibbon,  VI,  294.)  In  12 19  Genghis  organized  four  great  Mon- 
gol armies,  which  overran  Lahore,  Peshawur,  Melikpur,  Turkestan, 

^  In  Briggs'  "  Mahometan  Power  in  India,"  I,  33,  quoted  by  Ball,  209,  it  is  related 
that  in  the  first  month  of  Mahmoud  Ghazni's  reign,  his  followers  discovered  a  mine  in 
Seistan,  containing  a  gold  streak  "three  cubits  in  depth  "  and  shaped  like  a  tree. 
This  streak  was  of  pure  metal,  and  the  mine  continued  to  be  worked  until  the  reigu 
of  Musaud,  when  it  was  destroj'ed  and  lost  by  an  earthquake. 


I'LLNDKR    OK    ASIA.  319 

Transoxania,  Chorasmia  (to  Khiva),  Persia,  and  all  the  intervening 
countries.  The  cities  of  Otrar,  Samarcand,  Khogend,  Balkh,  and 
Herat,  all  fell  to  his  arms.  In  the  precincts  of  Herat  alone  no  less  than 
1,600,000  persons  were  slaughtered;  the  total  number  of  lives  de- 
stroyed by  the  Mongols  being  estimated  at  between  five  and  six  mil- 
lions. The  plunder  was  enormous.  The  entire  metallic  wealth  of 
the  countries  named,  e.xcept  what  the  terrified  inhabitants  saved  by 
burying  it,  would  seem  to  have  been  carried  away  by  this  scourge  of 
the  earth,  who,  in  one  day,  distributed  500  wagon  loads  of  gold  and 
silver  to  his  followers.  (Gibbon,  vi,  305.)  Yet  all  that  remains  of 
the  vast  Empire  which  Genghis  founded  is  a  granite  tablet  erected 
near  the  silver  mines  of  Nertschinsk,  dug  up  in  recent  years  and  deci- 
phered by  Prof.  Schmidt  of  Petersburg.  It  commemorated  in  the 
Mongol  language  the  conquest  of  the  kingdom  of  Kara-Khatai.' 

In  1290,  Ala,  or  Alau  'a  din,  the  nephew  of  Feroze  I.,  Patau  king 
of  Delhi,  after  having  assassinated  his  benefactor  and  uncle,  invaded 
the  Dekkan,  took  Deogiri  (now  Dowlatabad)  by  artifice,  and  returned 
to  Delhi  with  immense  treasure.  The  ransom  paid  by  the  rajah 
of  Deogiri,  or  Deoghar,  alone  amounted  to  17,500  pounds  weight  of 
gold  Lock,  306.  Ala  successively  plundered  Guzerat,  Telingana, 
Carnata,  and  M.Uabar.  It  was  this  usurper  who  affected  the  names 
of  Isskander  and  Jul-al-addin  (Divine  Glory)  and  meditated  setting 
himself  up  for  an  incarnation  of  the  Deity.  He  died  from  poison  in 
1316,  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign. 

In  1252  Kublai,  the  grandson  of  Genghis,  conducted  a  marauding 
expedition  through  the  heart  of  China  to  Yunnan,  and  in  1259  he  as- 
cended the  throne  of  his  ancestors  as  Grand  Khan  of  Mongolia,  or 
Tartary.  In  1264  Kublai  removed  the  seat  of  his  Empire  from  Kara- 
korum  to  ^Yenking  (now  Pekin),  which  he  thoroughly  rclniilt  and 
fortified.  From  this  centre,  and  after  repeated  campaigns,  covering 
nearly  half  a  century  of  time,  the  whole  of  China  and  the  Western 
steppes  were  subdued,  until  Kublai's  sway  extended  northward  to  the 
Arctic  Ocean,  westward  to  Poland,  southward  to  the  Strait  of  Ma- 
lacca, and  by  the  family  of  his  brother  Hulaku,  south-westward  from 
the  Oxus  to  the  Arabian  desert,  a  greater  extent  of  territory  than  was 
ever  previously  governed  by  a  single  monarch.  It  was  the  court 
of  Kublai  Khan  that  was  visited  by  the  Venetian  merchant  Marco 
Polo.   Kublai  conquered  Corea  and  even  threatened  Japan,  but  here 

*  .\t  K.irakorum,  the  origin.nl  cipital  of  fienghis.  there  was  found  by  the  monk 
kubruguis,  in  1254.  a  Paris  silversmith,  Ciuillaume  Boucher,  who  had  executed  for  the 
Khan,  "'a  silver  tree  supported  by  four  lions,  and  ejecting  four  different  liquors." 
4;ibbon,  VI.  306/1. 


320  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

his  good  fortune  failed  him,  and  his  expedition  of  100,000  men  was 
entirely  destroyed.  Chagrined  at  this  and  the  loss  of  his  son,  he  died 
soon  after,  in  1294,  at  the  age  of  78:  Du  Halde  says  80.  The  Mon- 
golian name  for  Pekin  was  Ham  Balu,  or  King's  Court,  written  Kam 
Balu,  or  Cambalu,  by  Marco  Polo.  Kublai  destroyed  the  Tao  books, 
altered  the  calendar  of  China,  and  built  the  great  canal  300  leagues 
long,  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  conveying  the  tributes  of  the  Empire 
to  Pekin.  But  little  mention  is  made  of  the  plunder  w-hich  he  accu- 
mulated, and  it  is  reasonable  to  believe,  both  from  this  circumstance 
and  the  honourable  character  of  his  sway,  that  so  far  as  the  precious 
metals  are  concerned,  it  was  comparatively  small.  Kublai's  Chinese 
titles  were  Chi  Tsou,  Chi  Yuen,  and  Ho-pi-ley. 

Lock  computes  the  accumulations  of  Kales  Dewar.  rajah  of  Mabar 
in  1309,  at  1,200  crores  of  gold,  which  he  converts  into  "  1,200  mil- 
lions sterling,  or  90,800,000  pounds  "  weight  of  gold!  The  accumu- 
lations were,  in  fact,  measured  in  crores  of  billon  coin,  and  therefore 
amounted  to  infinitely  less.  The  same  author  gives  as  "part  of  the 
spoil  of  Devara  Samudra  (Halebid,  Mysore)  presented,  in  13 10,  by 
Kafur  to  the  Emperor  of  Delhi,  2,400,000  pounds  (weight)  of  gold,'^ 
another  preposterous  computation,  the  result  of  a  similar  blunder. 
The  reader  who  desires  to  make  the  proper  calculations  for  himself 
will  find  the  materials  in  the  "History  of  Monetary  Systems,"  Lon- 
don edition,  chapter  on  "  India."  The  original  amount  from  Ferishta 
is  96,000  maunds  of  gold,  besides  20.000  horses  and  312  elephants^ 
all  pillaged  from  Halebid.     Taylor,  no. 

In  1398  India  was  again  plundered,  this  time  by  Timur,  or  Tamer- 
lane, a  Tartar  chieftain,  who,  under  a  solemn  promise  of  protection, 
induced  Delhi  to  surrender  to  his  arms,  when  he  resigned  it  to  the 
fury  of  a  savage  host,  who  condemned  its  hapless  people  to  every 
horror,  in  order  to  extort  from  them  the  secret  of  their  hoards  of  gold 
and  silver.  In  this  design  his  followers  succeeded;  and  loaded  with 
immense  booty,  they  left  the  city  to  desolation  and  ruin.  A  famine 
and  pestilence  afflicted  the  few  inhabitants  whom  the  sword  had 
spared;  so  that  many  generations  elapsed  before  Delhi  assumed  its 
wonted  appearance. 

In  1441  Abdul  Razzak,  the  ambassador  from  Persia  to  the  court 
of  Delhi,  mentions  the  "enormous  quantities  of  gold  which  were  to 
be  seen  in  the  King's  treasury  at  Vijayanagar,  or  Hampe,  in  the  Bel- 
lary  district "';  but  he  gives  no  specific  sum.  It  is  evident  from  these 
references  that  the  Mahometan  conquest  of  India  kept  a  large  num- 
ber of  natives  forcibly  at  work -washing  out  gold  from  the  attenuated 


PLUNDF.K    OK    ASIA  321 

gravels  of  the  river-l)eds;  with  wir.it  outcome  of  privation,  misery 
and  death  we  have  no  account.  The  means  employed,  though  not 
literally  chattel  slavery,  was  a  system  of  grinding  taxation,  which  had 
a  similar  effect  upon  the  natives.  It  is  probably  this  form  of  tyranny 
which  gave  rise  fo  that  aversion  to  dig  for,  or  even  to  use,  the  pre- 
cious metals,  which  Mr.  Pall  mentions  in  connection  with  the  Budd- 
hists of  Laddak. 

In  1526,  Baber,  the  sixth  in  descent  from  Timur,  invaded  India 
with  an  immense  army,  captured  Delhi  and  distributed  its  treasures 
among  his  soldiers.  He  successively  reduced  and  plundered  the  Pun- 
jab, Oude  anil  Rajpootana,  fixing  his  capital  at  Agra  and  establish- 
ing that  Mogul  emi:»ire  which  eventually  embraced  nearly  the  whole 
of  India  and  continued  to  exist  down  to  the  period  of  the  Eurcjpean 
invasions. 

In  1664  (Raynal),  or  else  in  1670  (Garrett),  Sevaji,'  a  Mahratta 
chief,  captureil  the  city  of  Surat,  the  principal  seai)ort  of  the  Grand 
Mogul's  dominions,  with  ^,^1, 200, 000  ($6,000,000)  in  treasure.  At 
that  period  the  British  had  a  fortified  factory  in  Surat,  which  they 
had  been  permitted  to  occupy  since  16 12.  This  they  defended  with 
so  much  courage  that  Sevaji  abandoned  his  attempt  to  reduce  it.  In 
recognition  of  this  act,  the  Grand  Mogul  (Auranzebe)  remitted  the 
duties  on  all  British  goods.     (Raynal,  11,  257;  Thornton,  948.) 

In  1736  (Macgregor),  1738  (Raynal),  1740  (Garrett),  or  1749 
(Haydn),  Nadir  Shah,  an  usurper  of  the  throne  of  Persia,  invaded 
Afghanistan,  reduced  Cabul  and  Candahar  and  then  marched  upon 
Delhi  with  such  rapidity  that  it  had  not  sufficient  time  to  prepare  for 
defence.  "Till  mid-day  the  streets  of  Delhi  streamed  with  blood; 
after  which  the  conqueror  suffered  himself  to  be  appeased — and  so 
comjilete  a  control  did  he  exercise  over  his  rude  followers — that  at 
his  mandate,  the  sword  was  immediately  sheathed."  .  .  .  The  im- 
perial repositories  were  now  ransacked  and  found  to  contain  specie, 
rich  robes,  and  above  ail,  jewels  to  an  incredible  value.  The  Mogul 
emperors,  since  the  first  accession  of  their  dynasty  had  been  inde- 
fatigable in  the  collection  of  these  objects  from  every  quarter,  by 
presents,  purchase,  or  forfeiture;  anil  the  store  had  been  continually 
augmented  without  suffering  any  alienation,  or  being  exposed  to  for- 
eign plunder.  The  invaders  continued  during  thirty-five  days  to  ex- 
tort by  threats,  torture  and  every  severity,  the  hidden  treasures  of 
that  splendid  capital.      Historians  estimate  the  sjioil  carried  off  by 

*  Se\*aji's  name,  like  most  Oriental  ones,  is  spelt  in  many  different  ways,  the  last 
and  most  approved  Anglo-Indian  form  being  Shivaji.  The  Madras  "  Indian  Review," 
April,  igoi,  p.  1S4. 


322  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS, 

the  Iranian  monarch  and  his  officers  at  ^32,000,000  ($160,000,000), 
of  which  at  least  one-half  was  in  diamonds  and  other  jewels."  (Gar- 
rett, 136).  Included  in  this  spoil  was  the  Peacock  Throne  and  the 
Kohinoor  diamond.  Macgregor  estimates  the  value  of  this  plunder 
at  ^125,000,000;  Haydn,  not  to  be  outdone,  swells  it  to  the  prepos- 
terous figure  of  ;^62  5,ooo,ooo! 

We  now  come  to  the  ravages  of  the  Europeans.  Before  the  close 
of  the  i6th  century  the  Portuguese  had  virtually  sacked  the  ports  of 
the  Orient  of  their  accumulations  of  gold,  besides  acquiring  such 
other  riches  and  advantages  as  enabled  Portugal  to  rapidly  rise  from 
the  condition  of  a  petty  kingdom  in  Europe  to  that  of  a  first-class 
power.  They  began  by  ransacking  the  coasts  of  Africa,  east  of  the 
Cape.  They  established  an  empire  extending  from  Sofala  to  Melinda, 
of  which  the  island  of  Mozambique  was  made  the  centre.  The  prin- 
cipal object  of  this  establishment  was  the  search  for  gold.  They  ex- 
plored all  the  rivers,  opened  a  trade  for  gold  with  the  negros,  and 
delved  for  gold  at  Tatti.  But  this  last  was  an  exceptional  case:  their 
usual  device  for  obtaining  gold  was  not  mining,  but  piracy. 

"They  supposed  that  the  Pope  of  Rome,  in  bestowing  the  King- 
dom of  Asia  upon  the  Portuguese  monarchs,  had  even  included  the 
property  of  individuals.  Being  absolute  masters  of  the  Eastern  seas, 
they  extorted  a  tribute  from  the  ships  of  every  country ;  they  ravaged 
the  coasts,  insulted  the  princes,  and  became  a  terror  and  a  scourge. 
The  King  of  Tidor  was  carried  off  from  his  own  palace  and  murdered 
with  his  children,  whom  he  had  entrusted  to  the  care  of  the  Portu- 
guese. At  Ceylon  the  people  were  not  suffered  to  cultivate  the  earth, 
except  for  the  benefit  of  their  new  masters.  At  Goa  they  established 
the  Inquisition,  and  whoever  was  rich,  became  a  prey  to  that  infam- 
ous tribunal.  At  the  island  of  Calampui,  Faria  plundered  the  sepul- 
chres of  the  Chinese  emperors.  In  Malabar,  Souza  plundered  and  de- 
stroyed all  the  pagodas  and  massacred  the  wretched  Indians  who  went 
to  weep  over  the  ruins  of  their  temples.  The  Portuguese  Correa  made 
a  treaty  with  the  King  of  Pegu,  and  swore  to  it  on  a  book  of  songs, 
with  the  view  to  disregard  his  oath  and  betray  his  friend.  Nuno 
D'Acunha,  after  sacking  Diu,  and  other  places  in  Guzerat,  descended 
upon  the  island  of  Daman,  on  the  coast  of  Cambaya,  where  the  in- 
habitants offered  to  surrender  to  him,  if  he  would  permit  them  to  re- 
move their  effects.  He  refused,  put  them  all  to  the  sword,  and  car- 
ried off  their  treasures.  One  of  the  commanders,  for  a  consideration, 
granted  a  passport  to  a  Moorish  ship  richly  laden.  Another  com- 
mander, Diego  de  Silveira,  cruising  in  the  Red  Sea,  overhauled  the 


PLUNDER    OF    ASIA.  323 

Moor,  and  after  examining  the  passport,  put  the  bearers  to  death.  Tlie 
passport  read:  '  I  desire  the  captains  of  ships  belonging  to  the  King 
of  Portugal  to  seize  upon  this  Moorish  vessel  as  a  lawful  prize.'  In 
a  short  time  the  Portuguese  preserved  no  more  humanity  or  good 
faith  with  each  other  than  with  the  Moors  or  Indians.  Almost  all  the 
States  where  they  had  command,  were  divided  into  (Portuguese)  fac- 
tions. Avarice,  debauchery,  cruelty  and  devotion  marked  their  man- 
ners. Most  of  them  had  seven  or  eight  concubines  whom  they  kept 
to  work  with  the  utmost  rigour  and  forced  from  them  the  money 
they  earnt  by  their  labour.  .  .  .  The  King  of  Portugal  no  longer 
received  the  tributes  which  a  few  years  back  had  been  paid  to  him  by 
more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  eastern  princes."  It  was  embezzled 
by  his  servants.     (The  Abbe  Raynal,  i,  207.) 

In  1 507-1 1  the  Duke  of  Alboquerque  plundered  all  the  Arabian  and 
Persian  and  many  of  the  Indian  ports,  from  the  Red  Sea  to  the  Straits 
of  Singapore.  Among  these  were  Muscat,  Ormuz,  Goa  and  Malacca, 
the  latter  with  precious  metals  to  the  value  of  one  million  gold  crus- 
ados,  each  of  about  the  weight  of  a  guinea,  or  half  eagle.  The  atroc- 
ities committed  by  Alboquerque,  were  they  not  avowed  by  the  man 
himself  and  corroborated  by  several  respectable  authors,  would  ex- 
ceed belief.  Accounts  of  them  will  be  found  in  the  "Commentaries 
of  Afonso  D' Alboquerque, "  published  in  Lisbon,  1774,  translated 
into  English  by  Walter  De  Gray  Birch,  and  published  in  London, 
^875,  by  the  Hakluyt  Society;  also  in  the  *'  Toh  fut-al  Mujahidden," 
an  Arabian  MS.  work  in  the  British  Museum  (Addl.  MS.  No.  22375), 
and  translated  into  English  by  Lieut.  M.  J.  Rowlandson,  London, 
1883.  The  limits  of  the  present  work  will  only  admit  of  some  brief 
abstracts;  but  the  reader  who  desires  further  light  concerning  the  cost 
of  gold  to  Europe  in  the  i6th  century,  and  the  influence  of  such  cost 
upon  its  present  value,  will  do  well  to  consult  the  original  works  for 
himself. 

Sailing  with  a  warrant  from  the  King  of  Portugal  to  take  "free 
booty  "  everywhere  in  the  Eastern  Seas,  Alboquerque  began  his  pir- 
atical proceedings  at  Braboa,  or  Brava,  an  Arabian  port  on  the  Zan- 
gueban  coast,  which  carried  on  a  trade  for  gold  with  Sofala  and  Mo- 
nomotapa.  Practically  his  demand  was:  "Surrender  everything, 
especially  gold,  silver  and  women,  or  perish  by  the  arquebus  and 
sword!  "  Refusal  was  answered  by  assault  and  followed  by  butchery. 
No  quarter  was  given  to  any  but  such  a  number  of  maidens  as  ful- 
filled the  requirements  of  the  murderers.  All  else,  man,  woman  and 
child,  were  slaughtered,  and  the  Hebrew  bible  was  impiously  cited  as 


324  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

authority  for  the  atrocious  deed.  The  houses  were  razed  in  the 
search  for  treasure,  the  mosques  were  robbed  of  their  sacramental 
vessels  and  "reconsecrated"  as  christian  churches,  together  with 
their  lands  and  appurtenances,  and  the  graves  were  opened  and  de- 
spoiled before  "the  honourable  cavaliers,"  as  they  regarded  them- 
selves, set  sail  for  the  Indies;  where  Goa,  Malacca,  and  several  other 
places  fell  to  their  treachery  or  their  arms.  It  was  on  his  return  voy- 
age that  Alboquerque  attacked  and  destroyed  the  Arabian  emporia 
at  Ormuz,  Muscat,  etc.  At  Muscat  the  order  was  to  put  all  the  Arabs 
to  the  sword,  both  men,  women  and  children,  to  spare  none,  save  for 
the  purpose  of  torture,  in  order  to  extort  the  secret  of  such  hoards 
of  gold  and  silver  as  the  natives  might  possess.  The  noses  and  ears 
of  the  Arabs  were  cut  off,  and  their  bowels  torn  out.  A  Portuguese 
cabin-boy,  armed  with  a  match-lock,  boasted  of  having  killed  in  a 
day  eighty  Arabs,  the  limit  of  either  his  ammunition,  or  his  strength 
to  reload.  The  hoards  and  sepulchres  were  then  robbed  and  the 
pirates  sailed  away,  leaving  only  death  and  desolation  behind  them. 
At  Ormuz  the  resistance  of  the  Arabs  led  to  a  parley,  in  which  the 
native  chief  or  governor  was  required  to  acknowledge  fealty  to  the 
King  of  Portugal,  and  pay  a  tribute  of  30,000  xerafins  per  annum.  ^ 
This  being  refused,  a  siege  was  commenced,  in  which  the  city  suf- 
all  the  horrors  of  thirst.  Beginning  at  10,  the  jar  of  water  rose  to  200 
xerafins,  and  finally  was  not  to  be  procured  at  any  price.  With  the 
women  and  children  around  them  dying  from  thirst,  the  stout  hearts 
of  the  Arabs  finally  gave  way,  and  Ormuz  capitulated,  only  to  suffer 
extinction  from  the  sword.  No  quarter  was  given.  The  order  was 
to  kill  all,  except  the  cattle;  and  with  their  lances  and  swords  drip- 
ping innocent  blood,  and  their  wallets  filled  with  gold  and  silver, 
whose  cost  of  production  is  claimed  by  the  modern  political  econo- 
mist to  be  a  mere  arithmetical  problem,  the  Portuguese  again  hoisted 
their  sails.  From  Kalhat  (Calayate)  they  only  carried  away  100,000 
xerafins:  a  sum  which  seemed  to  men  who  were  surfeited  with  plun- 
der, contemptibly  small. 

It  would  fatigue  the  reader  to  continue  an  account  of  the  atrocities 
which  Alboquerque  committed  to  acquire  the  gold  and  silver  of  the 
Orient.  The  pretence  which  appears  in  one  portion  of  his  "Com- 
mentaries," (Birch,  p.  119),  that  these  crimes  were  committed  "for 
the  Glory  of  the  Passion  of  Jesus  Christ, "is  falsified  by  the  fact  that 
where  the  "infidels"  were  found  too  strong  to  be  murdered  and  de- 

^  Mr.  Birch  regards  the  silver  xerafin  of  Ormuz  as  equivalent  to  about  15  pence 
sterling,  while  according  to  Kelley's  Cambist,  it  was  worth  as  much  as  the  Spanish 
silver  dollar. 


PLUNDER    OF    ASIA.  3^5 

spoiled,  they  were  invited  to  make  treaties  of  amity  and  trade.  No 
quantitative  account  of  Albocjucrque's  plunder  has  fallen  under  the  ob- 
servation of  the  writer,  but  judging  from  the  spoil  obtained  at  certain 
places  and  the  affluence  of  the  victors,  it  could  hardly  have  amounted 
to  less  in  value  than  fifty  million  dollars.  One-half  of  this  sum  was 
obtained  from  Malacca  and  Muscat  alone.  De  Villars  informs  us 
that  Alboquerque  exhibited  among  his  own  private  property  upon 
his  return  to  Portugal,  120  dozen  silver  plates,  500  large  silver  dishes, 
500  small  silver  dishes,  and  40  silver  ladders,  with  which  to  mount 
to  the  silver  repositories,  besides  numerous  other  articles  of  the  same 
precious  metal.  ("  Memoirs,"  ed.  i86i,p.  7;  Edin.  Rev.  Jan.  1861.) 
His  countrymen,  in  admiration  of  his  military  prowess,  dubbed  him 
the  Portuguese  Mars,  and  are  never  tired  of  singing  his  praises.  In 
fact,  he  was  a  coward  who  murdered  inoffensive  women  and  innocent 
children,  and  a  thief  who  robbed  peaceful  communities  and  dug  into 
the  graves  of  the  dead  for  spoil  with  which  to  augment  the  splendour 
of  his  own  palace.  This  palace  is  now  a  ruin;  the  Crown  which  he 
dishonoured  has  long  been  the  football  of  British  politicians;  while 
Portugal  itself,  naturally  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  fruitful  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  is  abandoned  by  its  people,  until  many  parts  of  it  are 
a  mere  desert,  in  which  the  indigent  survivors  exist  upon  tlie  pods  of 
the  carob  tree.      Lippincott's  Mag.,  1S71. 

Of  the  enormities  which  the  Portuguese  committed  in  Japan,  by 
means  of  which  they  obtainetl  from  that  country  gold  and  silver  to 
the  amount  of  about  thirty  millions  sterling  ($150,000,000),  we  have 
written  elsewhere.  The  decline  of  the  Portuguese  power  in  the 
Orient  antedates  the  period,  A.  I).  1580,  when  Portugal  was  annexed 
to  the  Crown  of  Spain.  Says  Raynal;  "The  original  conquerors  of 
India  were  none  of  them  now  in  being;  and  their  country,  exhausted 
by  too  many  enterprises  and  colonies,  was  not  in  a  condition  to  re- 
place them.  At  the  same  time  that  they  gave  themselves  up  to  all 
those  excesses  which  make  men  hated,  they  had  not  courage  enough 
left  to  inspire  the  people  with  terror.  They  were  monsters:  poison, 
fire,  assassination,  every  sort  of  crime  was  become  familiar  to  them; 
nor  were  only  private  individuals  guilty  of  such  practices;  men  in 
office  set  tb.em  the  example.  They  massacred  the  natives,  they  de- 
stroyed one  another.  The  newly-arrived  governor  often  loaded  his 
predecessor  with  chains,  that  he  might  deprive  him  of  his  wealth. 
The  distance  of  the  scene  (from  Europe),  false  witnesses  and  heavy 
bribes,  secured  every  crime  from  punishment. 

"The  island  of  Amboyna  was  the  first  to  avenge  itself.     A  Por- 


326  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

tuguese  had  at  a  public  festival  seized  upon  a  very  beautiful  woman; 
and  regardless  of  all  decency  had  proceeded  to  the  greatest  of  out- 
rages. Under  the  leadership  of  Genulio,  the  islanders  flew  to  arms, 
and  before  attacking  the  Portuguese,  thus  addressed  them:  '  To  re- 
venge affronts  such  as  this  one  calls  for  action,  not  for  words:  yet 
listen!  You  preach  to  us  a  Deit}'  whom  you  say  delights  in  generous 
actions;  yet  theft,  murder,  obscenity  and  drunkenness  are  your  com- 
mon practices.  Your  hearts  are  inflamed  with  every  vice. 
Go,  fix  your  habitations  among  those  who  are  as  brutal  as  yourselves. 
.  .  ,  The  Itons  are  from  this  day  your  enemies;  fly  from  their 
country  and  beware  how  you  approach  it  again!  " 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  turn  from  the  Portuguese  to  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Spaniards  in  the  Orient.  They  were  simply  the  counter- 
part of  previous  doings  in  America.  The  Moluccas  or  Spice  Islands, 
the  Philippines — indeed  every  place  conquered  by  them  was  robbed 
of  its  gold,  enslaved,  and  subjected  to  the  most  revolting  cruelties. 
If  the  reader  is  not  tired  of  these  horrors  let  him  read  Mr.  Horace 
St.  John's  "Indian  Archipelago,"  where  he  can  get  his  fill.  In  a 
single  day  the  Spaniards  betrayed,  entrapped  and  massacred  20,000 
Chinese  in  the  Philippines,  and  on  another  occasion  33,000,  of  both 
sexes  and  all  ages;  the  mocive  in  these  cases  being  simply  gold.  St. 
John,  pp.  238,  327.  The  object  of  the  present  work  is  not  to  prove 
how  cruel  man  becomes  in  his  search  for  the  precious  metals,  but 
to  place  before  the  reader  the  evidence  that  our  Institution  of 
Money,  so  far  as  it  is  based  upon  the  theory  that  the  value  of  gold 
conforms  to  the  economical  cost  of  its  production,  is  built  upon  a 
fatal  error;  that  the  cost  of  gold  is  not  to  be  measured  in  economical 
effort,  but  in  blood,  in  tears,  in  hellish  passions  and  in  beastiality; 
and  that  the  economical  cost  is  unknown  and  unknowable. 

We  now  turn  to  the  transactions  of  the  Dutch.  The  early  pecun- 
iary success  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company  has  remained  a  mys- 
tery, which  the  laboured  efforts  of  De  Luzac  never  succeeded  in 
explaining.  The  exports  from  Europe  were  comparatively  small; 
the  imports  from  Asia  were  immense.  Whence  arose  the  difference? 
From  commercial  profits.?  Impossible:  the  difference  amounted  to 
some  thousands  per  cent.  The  East  Indians  are  among  the  shrewdest 
traders  in  the  world.  The  honest  Abbe  Raynal  explains  the  whole 
matter  in  a  few  words  :  whilst  the  Portuguese  robbed  the  Indians, 
the  Dutch  robbed  the  Portuguese.  "In  less  than  half  a  century  the 
ships  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company  took  more  than  three  hun- 
dred Portuguese  vessels    .    .    .    laden  with  the  spoils  of  Asia.    These 


PLUNDF.R    OF    ASIA.  327 

brought  the  Company  immense  returns."  Thus  we  find  that  much 
of  the  Eastern  gold,  which  found  its  way  to  Amsterdam,  was  the  pro- 
ceeds of  a  double  robbery. 

One  of  the  earliest  of  the  Dutch  acquisitions  in  the  Orient  was  a 
fort  which  the  natives  permitted  them  to  erect  near  the  present  city 
of  Batavia.  Here  they  conducted  an  establishment  which  was  called 
a  trading  factory,  but  which  was  little  more  than  a  trap  for  slaves, 
who  were  captured  in  the  Moluccas,  the  Celebes,  and  other  islands, 
and  brought  hither  to  cultivate  spices  or  else  shipped  to  Sumatra,  to 
dig  gold  for  their  Dutch  masters.  Raynal  (1,337)  estimated  these 
slaves  at  150,000.  They  were  not  liberated  until  1850,  before  which 
time  spices  had  ceased  to  be  a  monopoly,  and  the  gold  of  Russia  and 
California  had  rendered  the  mines  of  Sumatra  practically  worthless. 

Of  these  mines  (drift  mines  in  banket),  near  which  the  Dutch  built 
their  factory  in  1649,  Marsden  (1S12),  says  that  in  the  domain  of 
Menangkabau  alone,  to  say  nothing  of  others,  there  were  1,200;  and 
that  the  annual  receipts  of  gold  at  the  ports,  whither  only  a  portion 
of  the  product  found  its  way,  were  about  15,000  ounces.  Crawford 
(1S20),  estimated  the  total  annual  product  of  Sumatra  at  35,530 
ounces,  or  ^151,000,  or  $671, 125.  According  to  Verbeck  (1879),  this 
rate  of  production  continued  throughout  a  long  period.    (Lock,  460.) 

In  1682  the  Dutch  East  India  Company  sent  out  a  party  of  miners 
from  Saxony  under  an  e.xpert  named  Benj.  Olitzsch,  to  open  up  a 
quartz  mine  at  Sileda,  but  the  undertaking  was  opposed  by  the  na- 
tives and  several  of  the  miners  were  killed.  Attempts  on  the  part  of 
the  Company  to  work  the  gravel  mines  beyond  the  protection  of 
their  forts,  met  with  little  better  success;  whereupon  it  was  shrewdly 
resolved  to  resign  the  actual  working  of  the  mines  to  the  natives  and 
obtain  the  gold  by  exchanging  for  it  the  iron,  opium,  and  piece-goods 
of  trans-marine  origin,  which  the  natives  coveted.  The  process  by 
which  the  gold  was  obtained  was  therefore  as  ft)IIows:  One  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  slaves  are  captured  in  the  Moluccas,  Celebes  and 
other  islands  to  cultivate  spices  in  Java;  the  spices  thus  raised  are 
exchanged  for  European  goods  brought  to  Batavia,  and  these  goods 
are  exchanged  for  the  gold  washed  out  by  the  natives  of  Sumatra.  It 
would  be  interesting  to  learn,  from  thi^se  sciolists  whose  clamour  and 
false  doctrine  on  this  subject  fill  the  commercial  world,  what  they 
regard  as  the  economical  cost  of  the  production  of  gold  in  a  case  of 
this  sort.' 

'  In  the  ancient  Indian  mines  of  the  Wyna.id,  in  Mysore,  a  large  number  of  skeletons 
were  found  lying  in  such  positions  as  to  establish  the  inference  that   they  were  thf>'^e 


328  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

The  Dutch,  who  knew  the  importance  of  Malacca,  used  their  ut- 
most efforts  to  conquer  it  for  the  sake  of  its  trade  in  gold,  tin,  opium, 
ivory  and  linen.  Having  failed  in  two  attempts,  they  had  recourse 
at  last  to  artifice.  "They  endeavoured  to  bribe  the  Portuguese 
governor,  whom  they  knew  to  be  covetous.  The  bargain  was  con- 
cluded, and  he  admitted  the  Dutch  into  the  city  in  1641.  The  Dutch 
hastened  to  his  house  and  murdered  him,  to  save  the  payment  of  the 
half  million  of  livres  ($100,000)  which  they  had  promised  him.  .  .  . 
The  Dutch  commander  then  ironically  asked  the  leader  of  the  Por- 
tuguese forces  when  he  thought  he  would  be  able  to  recover  the 
place.  '  When  your  crimes  are  greater  than  ours,'  gravely  replied  the 
Portuguese."    (Raynal.) 

In  1658  the  Dutch  obtained  possession  of  Ceylon  by  a  similar  act 
of  treachery.  This  island  was  valuable  for  its  trade  in  precious 
stones,  pearls  and  gold.  The  Cinghalese  name  for  this  metal  is  rang. 
Amurang  means  native  gold;  ratrang  is  bullion.  The  names  of  many 
places  in  Ceylon  indicate  the  presence  of  gold,  as  Rangboda  (gold- 
town),  Ruanwelle  (golden-sand),  and  Rang-galle  (the  rock  of  gold). 
Ptolemy  and  Solinus  both  mention  the  gold  of  Ceylon.  It  is  referred 
to  in  the  Mahawanso.  The  natives  are  well  aware  of  its  presence, 
and  frequently  wash  out  small  quantities  of  it  from  the  river  gravels. 
Spilberg,  the  Dutch  admiral,  persuaded  the  King  of  Ceylon  that  the 
Portuguese  intended  to  subvert  the  government  and  religion  of  his 
country,  and  he  offered  his  disinterested  assistance  to  drive  out  those 
wicked  people,  stipulating,  however,  that  he  should  be  permitted  to 
build  a  fort  on  the  island.  The  offer  was  joyfully  accepted,  the  grate- 
ful monarch  offering  both  himself,  his  wives,  and  his  children,  to 
bring  together  the  necessary  materials  for  this  work.  It  was  thus 
that  in  1658  the  virtuous  Hollanders  made  themselves  masters  of  the 
island.' 

In  1663,  after  the  Portuguese  had  been  driven  from  most  of  their 
ill-gotten  possessions  in  India,  they  still  maintained  their  ground  in 
Malabar,  whereupon  they  were  suddenly  attacked  by  the  Dutch,  who 
took  from  them  Culan,  Cananor,  Grandganor,  and  Cochui.  "The 
victorious  general  had  but  just  invested  this  last  place,  the  most  im- 
portant of  all,  when  he  received  intelligence  of  a  peace  that  had  been 
concluded  between  Holland  and  Portugal.  This  news  was  kept 
secret.      The  operations  were  carried  on  with  vigour,  and  the  be- 

of  workmen  who  had  perished  from  the  caving  of  the  mines.  Even  at  the  present 
day,  when  mines  are  opened  systematically  and  supported  in  weak  places  by  heavy 
timbers  skilfully  adjusted,  the  caving  in  of  a  mine  is  not  an  infrequent  occurrence, 
and  in  some  instances  is  attended  bv  great  loss  of  life.  '  Mavor's  Vovages. 


IM.UNDKK    OF    ASIA. 


329 


sieged,  harrassed  by  continual  assaults,  surrendered  on  the  eiglitli 
day  of  the  siege.  The  ne.\t  day  a  frigate  arrived  from  Goa  with  the 
Articles  of  Peace.  The  conciuerors  gave  themselves  no  trouble  to 
justify  their  treachery,  further  than  by  alleging  that  those  who  com- 
plained had  followed  the  same  course  in  Brazil  a  few  years  before." 
(Raynal,  i.  303.) 

"  For  two  hundred  years  the  Dutch  enriched  themselves  by  the 
sale  of  cloves  and  nutmegs.  To  secure  themselves  the  exclusive 
trade  in  these  articles  they  destroyed  and  enslaved  the  nations  who 
were  in  possession  of  these  spices;  and  lest  the  price  of  them  should 
fall,  even  in  their  own  hands,  they  rooted  up  most  of  the  trees  and  have 
frequently  burnt  the  fruit  of  those  they  possessed."  (Raynal,  11,41 5.) 
Their  policy  with  respect  to  gold  was  of  a  similar  character.  Gold 
they  could  not  destroy,  but  gold  coins  they  rendered  scarce  by  abro- 
gating the  customary  seigniorage  and  removing  all  impediments  to 
the  melting  down  or  exportation  of  coins.  This  policy,  ruinous  to 
any  State  but  that  t)ne  which  happens  to  command  the  carrying  trade 
of  the  world,  was  followed  by  Philip  of  Spain,  in  1608,  and  by  Charles 
II.  of  England,  in  1666,  and  thoughtlessly  copied  into  the  Mint  Act 
of  the  United  States,  adopted  in  1790. 

After  the  depredations  of  the  Portuguese  and  Dutch,  those  of  the 
French  seem  light  by  comparison.  Like  their  predecessors,  they 
plundered  many  of  the  sea-coast  towns,  and,  under  pretence  of  de- 
fending the  native  princes  against  their  neighbours,  managed  to  gain 
from  them  valuable  concessions  and  monopolies  of  trade,  which  savour 
more  of  blackmail  than  commerce.  Among  the  places  thus  acquired 
was  a  territory  near  Pondicherry,  the  territory  of  Kurical,  and  the 
city  of  Mausulipatam  with  its  dependencies,  with  annual  revenues 
computed  at  ^43,250,  together  with  ^100,000  in  cash  out  of  the 
j^2, ^00, 000  plundered  from  the  treasury  of  Nazir-jing,  soubah  of  the 
Dekkan,  whom  the  French  assisted  to  dethrone  in  favour  of  his  rival, 
Muzaphe-jing.  For  defending  the  nabobship  of  Arcot  in  favour  of 
the  same  house,  the  French  obtained  from  Salabut-jingthe  provinces 
of  Mustaphanagar,  Ellore,  Rujamundy,  and  Chicacole  in  full  sover- 
eighty.  "The  acquisitions,  added  to  Mausulipatam,  rendered  the 
French  masters  of  the  sea-coast  of  Coromandel  and  Orissa  for  600 
miles,  from  Moatapillo  to  Jaggernaut.  The  revenues  of  these  terri- 
tories were  computed  at  42,87,000  rupees;  and  the  French  now  ruled 
over  a  greater  dominion  in  extent  and  value  than  had,  up  to  this 
period,  ever  been  possessed  by  Europeans  in  India."  (.Macgregor, 
IV,  301.)    In  the  Anglo-French  convention  of  1755,  the  French  were 


^^O  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

to  be  undisturbed  in  the  enjoyment  of  these  revenues,  which  were 
then  computed  at  68,42,000  rupees,  or  ^8e^Si,2^o  sterling. 

The  Abbe  Raynal  claims  that  in  the  war  between  France  and  Eng- 
land, which  followed  the  deposition  of  James  II.,  the  French  priva- 
teers took  no  less  than  4,200  English  merchantmen,  valued  at  675 
million  livres  (about  135  million  dollars),  and  that  these  vessels  in- 
cluded "the  greatest  part  of  the  ships  returning  from  India"  laden 
with  the  plunder  and  other  merchandise  which  their  rivals  had  amassed 
in  the  Orient.  (Vol.  11,  p.  35.)  On  the  other  hand,  Macgregor,  vol. 
IV,  estimates  the  loss  to  England  at  not  more  than  3  or  4  per  cent, 
upon  the  entire  trade,  including  losses  from  wrecks.  This  propor- 
tion, however,  appears  to  be  derived  from  the  rates  of  insurance 
covering  the  entire  period  of  British  commerce  with  India,  and  is  not 
confined  to  that  of  toe  French  privateering  expeditions. 

The  account  which  Raynal  gives  of  the  misconduct  of  his  country- 
men in  India  does  not  differ  much  from  what  we  are  told  of  the  other 
Europeans  in  those  distant  regions:  "The  misfortunes  which  befell 
the  French  in  Asia  had  been  foreseen  by  all  considerate  men  who  re- 
flected on  the  corruption  of  the  nation.  Their  morals  had  degener- 
ated in  the  voluptuous  climate  of  India.  The  wars  which  Dupleix 
carried  on  in  the  inland  parts  had  laid  the  foundation  of  many  for- 
tunes. They  were  increased  and  multiplied  by  the  gifts  which  Sala- 
batjing  lavished  on  those  who  conducted  him  in  triumph  to  his  capital, 
and  fixed  him  on  the  throne.  The  officers  who  had  not  shared  the 
dangers,  the  glory,  and  the  benefits  of  those  brilliant  expeditions, 
found  out  an  expedient  to  comfort  themselves  under  their  misfortunes ; 
which  was,  to  reduce  the  sipahis  (Sepoys)  to  half  the  number  they 
w^ere  required  to  maintain,  and  to  apply  their  pay  to  their  own  benefit; 
which  they  could  easily  do,  as  the  money  passed  through  their  hands. 
The  trade  agents,  who  had  not  these  resources,  accounted  to  the  Com- 
pany but  for  a  very  small  part  of  the  profits  made  upon  the  European 
goods  they  sold,  though  such  profits  ought  to  have  been  all  paid  to 
the  Company,  for  whom  they  also  bought  merchandise  in  India  at  a 
very  high  price,  which  the  Company  ought  to  have  had  at  prime  cost. 
Those  who  were  entrusted  in  collecting  the  revenue  of  any  particular 
place,  farmed  it  to  themselves  under  Indian  names,  or  let  such  farms 
for  a  trifle,  upon  receiving  a  corrupt  gratuity;  they  even  frequently 
kept  back  the  whole  income  of  such  estates,  under  pretence  of  some 
imaginary  robbery  or  devastation,  which  had  made  it  impossible  to 
collect  it.  All  undertakings,  of  what  nature  soever,  were  clandestinely 
agreed  upon  and  became  the  prey  of  persons  employed   in  them, 


PI.UNDKk    OF    ASIA.  33I 

who  had  found  means  to  make  them  formidable,  or  of  such  as  were 
most  in  favour,  or  were  the  richest.  'Ihe  autiiorized  abuse  which 
prevails  in  India,  of  giving  and  receiving  presents  on  the  conclusion 
of  every  treaty,  has  multiplied  these  transactions  without  necessity. 
The  navigators  who  landed  in  those  parts,  dazzled  with  the  fortunes 
which  they  saw  increased  fourfold  from  one  voyage  to  another,  no 
longer  regarded  their  ships  but  as  means  of  carrying  on  private  trade 
and  acquiring  clandestine  wealth.  Corruption  was  brought  to  its 
greatest  height  by  people  of  rank,  who  had  been  disgraced  and  ruined 
at  home;  but  who,  being  encouraged  by  what  they  saw,  and  impelled 
by  the  reports  that  were  brought  to  them,  resolved  to  go  themselves 
into  Asia,  in  hopes  of  retrieving  their  shattered  fortunes,  or  of  being 
able  to  continue  their  irregularities  with  impunity.  The  personal 
conduct  of  the  directors  made  it  necessary  for  them  to  connive  at  all 
these  disorders.  They  were  reproached  with  attending  to  nothing 
in  their  office  but  credit  and  money,  and  the  power  it  gave  them;  with 
conferring  the  most  important  posts  upon  their  own  relations,  men 
of  no  morals,  industry,  or  capacity;  with  multiplying  the  number  of 
factors,  without  necessity  and  without  bounds,  in  order  to  secure 
friends  in  the  city  and  at  court;  and,  lastly,  they  were  accused  of 
palming  upon  the  public,  commodities  which  might  have  been  bought 
cheaper  and  better  in  other  places.  Whether  the  French  government 
was  ignorant  of  these  excesses,  or  lacked  the  resolution  to  put  a  stop 
to  them,  it  was,  by  such  blindness  or  weakness,  in  some  measure, 
accessory  to  the  ruin  of  the  affairs  of  the  nation  in  India."  (Raynal, 

",  372) 

These  crimes  and  offences  committed  by  the  Portuguese,  Spaniards, 
Hollanders,  etc.,  in  their  search  for  the  gold  of  Asia,  remained  to  be 
eclipsed  by  the  British.  In  1612  permission  was  granted  to  them  by 
the  Grand  Mogul,  Shah  Jehan  (Jehangir)  to  establish  factories  at 
Surat  and  at  several  minor  places  in  Guzerat.  In  16 16  this  was  ex- 
tended to  all  the  ports  of  the  Mogul  Empire.  In  1620  permission  to 
trade  and  to  coin  "  Lakshmi  "  pagodas  was  given  to  the  Company 
by  the  Rajah  of  Madras.  In  1622  the  English  plundered  Ormuz,  in 
the  Persian  Gulf,  which  had  been  previously  plundered  by  the  Por- 
tuguese. In  1628  the  British  erected  a  factory  and  fort  at  Armegon, 
66  miles  north  of  Madras,  and  in  1639  a  similar  establishment  (Fort 
St.  George)  at  Madras  itself.  In  1668  the  island  of  Bombay,  which 
Charles  II.  had  acquired  from  his  wife,  and  she  from  the  Crown  of 
Portugal,  was  ceded  by  him  for  a  pecuniary  consideration  to  the  East 
India  Company,  soon  after  which  transaction  the  head(}uartcrs  of  the 


332  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Company  in  the  Indies  were  removed  to  this  place,  which  was  strongly 
fortified,  provided  with  dock-yards  and  filled  with  commodious  store- 
houses, residences  and  other  buildings.  Next  to  Surat,  the  principal 
mart  had  been  at  Bantam,  on  the  island  of  Java,  then  "  the  greatest 
place  of  trade  in  the  Indian  Seas."  This  is  included  in  the  list  of 
factories  which  the  English  Company  possessed  in  1617.  (Macgregor, 
IV,  311.)  They  were  expelled  from  Bantam  by  the  Dutch  in  1680 
whereupon  the  Company  fitted  out  a  fleet  of  twenty-three  ships  and 
8,000  regular  troops.  To  retrieve  the  loss  of  Bantam  this  force  was 
ready  to  sail,  when  Charles  II.,  for  a  bribe  of  ;^ioo,ooo,  which,  ac- 
cording to  Raynal,  "  was  paid  to  him  by  the  Dutch,"  countermanded 
the  order,  and  the  fleet  never  sailed.  The  Company  had  been  to  such 
great  expense  in  this  matter  that  it  could  not  command  the  funds 
necessary  to  purchase  the  next  year's  cargoes  in  Surat,  and  was 
therefore  obliged  to  purchase  them  from  the  native  merchants,  on 
credit.  These  purchases  amounted  to  so  large  a  sum  that  Sir  Josiah 
Child,  the  tyrant  of  the  Company,  resolved,  if  possible,  to  avoid  its 
payment,  by  trumping  up  a  series  of  fictitious  claims  against  the 
governor  of  Surat.  With  this  object  Sir  Josiah  sent  out  his  brother 
John,  as  governor  of  Bombay,  with  instructions,  in  case  his  claims 
were  not  allowed,  to  sack  every  ship  departing  from  that  city.  "This 
terrible  pillage,  which  lasted  the  whole  year  1688,  occasioned  incred- 
ible losses  throughout  all  Hindostan";  losses  and  outrages  which 
were  soon  afterwards  avenged  by  Auranzib.  In  1689  he  sent  20,000 
troops  to  Bombay,  who  carried  the  outworks,  captured  the  cannon, 
besieged  Child  in  the  citadel  and  induced  him  to  sue  for  pardon. 
His  deputies  were  admitted  to  the  Grand  Mogul's  court,  with  their 
hands  tied  and  their  faces  toward  the  ground.  The  conditions  of 
the  pardon  were  the  dismissal  of  Child  and  restoration  of  the  plunder. 
These  being  arranged,  Bombay  was  released.  It  afterwards  became 
the  principal  base  of  British  operations  in  the  Indies. 

While  Child  was  plundering  the  ships  of  Guzerat,  other  agents  of 
the  Company  were  busy  at  the  same  sort  of  work  in  Sumatra.  A 
squadron  of  the  Company's  ships  had  been  dispatched  to  Madras, 
with  orders  to  set  up  a  factory  at  Indrapoura,  "  the  part  of  the  coun- 
try mostabounding  in  gold."  Contrary  winds  havingdriventhe  vessels 
to  Sumatra,  which  was  also  reputed  to  be  rich  in  gold,  the  adven- 
turers resolved  to  fix  a  factory  at  Bencoolen.  "  Their  trade  with  the 
natives  was  made  at  first  with  a  great  deal  of  frankness  and  confi- 
dence, but  this  harmony  did  not  last  long.  The  agents  of  the  Com- 
pany soon  gave  themselves  to  that  spirit  of  rapine  and  tyranny  which 


Pl.UNUhR    OK    ASIA.  ^^^ 

Europeans  so  universally  carry  into  Asia.  Animosity  was  at  its  height 
when  the  natives  saw  rising  out  of  the  ground,  at  a  distance  of  but 
two  leagues  from  their  city,  the  foundations  of  a  fortress,"  the  fu- 
ture Fort  York.  This  led  to  a  conflict,  which  was  only  accommo- 
dated after  much  loss  and  difficulty.  In  1730  Fort  York  was  aban- 
doned;  but  Fort  Marlborough  was  built  a  league  distant. 

It  was  at  this  place  that  a  large  pro[Kjrtion  of  the  gold  product  of 
Sumatra  was  concentrated:  for  the  English,  following  the  example 
of  the  Dutch,  had  found  it  more  profitable  to  kidnap  slaves  and  ex- 
change slave-products  for  native  gold,  than  to  work  tiie  mines  in  the 
face  of  native  opposition.'  When  Fort  St.  George  (Madras)  was  taken 
by  the  French  in  1759  it  contained  only  a  small  amount  of  booty, 
the  English  having  shrewdly  sent  their  gold  to  England  as  fast  as  it 
was  acquired.  Among  the  si.\ty-odd  factories  which  the  Company- 
claimed  to  possess  in  17 10,  were  Aden,  Mocha,  Bassora,  Ispahan,, 
Bombay,  Calcutta,  Madras,  Hooghly,  Patna,  Siam,  Pegu,  Cochin, 
Acheen,  Bantam,  Macassar,  and  Amboyna.    (Macgregor,  iv,  342.) 

In  1733  the  "  Emperor"  Charles  VI.,  of  Germany,  granted  a  cliar- 
ter  to  the  "  Ostend  Company,"  with  license  to  trade  witli  the  Indies, 
erect  factories,  buiUl  forts,  etc.,  under  the  protection  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire.  The  capital  of  this  Company,  six  million  florins, 
was  subscribed  in  one  day,  and  ships  were  at  once  dispatched,  laden 
with  merchandise  and  silver  bullion,  to  take  part  in  this  lucrative 
commerce.  But  the  remonstrances  of  the  English  antl  Dutch  against 
this  assumption  of  authority  were  so  effective  that  a  few  years  later, 
this  monarch  was  induced  to  withdraw  his  license;  when  the  Ostend 
Company  came  to  an  inglorious  end.  Several  other  attempts  of  a 
similar  character  were  afterwards  made,  but  they  were  defeated  by 
the  same  influence  and  ended  the  same  way.  (Macgregor,  iv,  344-8.) 
From  these  circumstances  it  is  evident  that  the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
was  practically  dead  before  Napoleon  pretended  to  kill  it  in  1806. 

Down  to  the  middle  of  the  18th  century,  if  we  except  the  factories 
already  mentioned  and  alluded  to,  the  British  East  India  Company 
had  acquired  no  territory  in  India.  They  were  nominally  a  trad- 
ing Company,  rich,  bold,  and  covetous,  but  presumably  governed 
by  British  law  and  British  principles  of  honour,  justice  and  national 
polity.    In  their  haste  to  snatch  Bengal  from  its  rightful  owners  they 

'  In  the  evidence  given  by  Mr.  F.  H.  Barber,  before  the  Committee  on  Indian 
Affairs  of  the  English  House  of  Lords,  printed  .April  2,  1830  (cited  in  Hail,  iSi),  it  is 
stated  that  the  gold  mines  of  .Malabar  were  crowded  with  slaves,  who  cost  the  Eng- 
lish proprietors  from  5  to  20  rupees — say.  $2  to  $8  each  ;  that  their  sole  clothing  was  a 
plantain  leaf ;  and  that  their  wretched  appearance  suggested  baboons,  rather  than  men. 


334  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

threw  off  all  disguise  and  trampled  upon  every  principle  of  justice. 
The  moment  for  action  was  propitious.  The  Portuguese  had  been 
virtually  driven  from  Hindostan  by  the  Dutch,  and  the  Dutch  by  the 
English,  the  former  retaining  only  Malacca,  Cochin  and  the  Sunda 
Islands.  The  French  still  governed  the  Carnatic,  but  they  were 
hardly  to  be  feared  in  Bengal.  This  was  the  time  when  Clive, 
Omichund  and  Meer  Jaffier  put  their  wicked  heads  together  and 
plotted  to  rob  the  viceroy  Surajah  Dowlah  of  his  master's  empire. 
Bribery,  treachery  and  forgery  were  the  instruments  employed  by 
Clive.  He  condoned  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,  by  the  most  friendly 
professions  toward  the  guilty  viceroy;  he  conspired  with  Meer  Jaffier 
to  betray  the  viceroy;  he  agreed  to  pay  Omichund,  the  go-between, 
^300,000  for  his  vile  services;  and,  by  a  trick  with  white  and  red 
paper,  afterwards  cheated  him  of  his  guilty  reward.  The  "battle" 
of  Plassy  was  fought  by  900  Europeans  with  a  loss  of  22  killed  and 
50  wounded.  It  was  little  more  than  a  skirmish,  employed  as  a  blind 
to  cover  Clive's  treacherous  bargain  with  Meer  Jaffier,  who  at  the 
critical  moment  drew  off  his  forces  from  the  field  and  left  the  viceroy 
to  his  fate.  The  immediate  results  of  this  episode  were  that  Meer 
Jaffier  enjoyed  for  a  brief  interval  the  empty  viceroyship  of  Bengal; 
Omichund,  upon  finding  that  he  was  duped,  sank  into  idiocy;  and 
Clive  entered  the  treasury  of  Moorshedabad  to  find,  like  another  Piz- 
arro,  an  apartment  filled  with  gold  and  silver.  Reserving  for  himself 
what  he  afterwards  declared  was  altogether  too  modest  a  proportion, 
namely  $1,500,000,  he  turned  over  the  remainder  to  the  Company. 
In  addition  to  his  modest  reservation,  he  compelled  Meer  Jaffier  to 
grant  him  an  annual  revenue  from  the  Bengal  treasury  of  $140,000. 
Such  is  the  account  of  the  plunder.  The  larger  results  of  the  battle 
of  Plassy  were  the  conquest  of  Bengal  and  afterwards  of  all  India. 

In  1759  the  English  took  Mausulipatam,  and  gained  the  ear  of 
Salubat-jing,  with  whom  they  entered  into  a  treaty  to  attack  the 
French  and  compel  them  to  evacuate  the  Peninsular.  This  conven- 
tion was  literally  carried  out.  During  the  year  1760  the  French  were 
driven  from  the  Dekkan,  from  Orissa,  and,  in  1761,  from  Pondicherry 
and  the  entire  Coromandel  Coast.  By  the  Anglo-French  treaty  of 
1763  the  French  factories  thus  captured  were  to  be  restored,  but  not 
the  French  sovereignty  of  the  territories  of  which  they  had  been  dis- 
possessed. In  1778  Pondicherry  and  the  other  French  factories  in 
Coromandel  and  Orissa  were  again  taken,  and. in  1793  the  French 
settlements  in  Bengal ;  with  them  the  French  power  in  the  Indies  was 
completely  extinguished. 


PLUNDKR    OK    ASIA.  335 

^"  '773  ^I've  was  inipcachecl  l)y  the  House  of  Commons,  Init 
aquitted  with  honour.  In  tlie  following  year  he  committed  suicide. 
The  plunder  acquired  by  Clive  was  enormous.  In  1755  he  sacked 
Gheriah  of  ^^i 50,000  in  the  precious  metals;  in  1756  he  took  Cal- 
cutta; in  1759  Hoogly  with  ^600,000,  and  Moorshcdabad  with  sev- 
eral millions.  With  part  of  these  treasures  he  corrupted  the  com- 
manders of  the  native  armies  and  thus  acquired  Benares,  upon  which 
he  levied  a  contribution  of  eight  million  livres.  (Raynal,  11,  172.) 
The  English  agreed  to  serve  the  Grand  Mogul  on  condition  that  he 
surrendered  to  them  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  Bengal;  yet,  after 
he  had  ceded  this  vast  realm,  they  repudiated  the  agreement.  (Ray- 
nal, II,  173.)  Nay,  after  they  had  plundered  the  country  of  its  treas- 
ures and  acquired  the  right  to  govern  and  tax  it,  they  stooped  to  the 
debasement  of  its  coin  and  altered  its  metallic  basis.  They  sold  ex- 
change on  India  in  mohurs,  then  they  debased  the  mohurs  with  over 
40  per  cent,  alloy.  Raynal  states  that  the  amount  struck  of  these 
over-valued  pieces  was  about  ^625,000;  that  they  were  nominally 
rated  at  io)4  rupees,  while  the  Company  only  paid  6  for  them.  Fin- 
ally, they  refused  to  accept  tributes  in  the  billon  coins  of  the  Moguls 
— all  that  were  left  to  the  miserable  inhabitants — and  insisted  upon 
payment  in  those  silver  rupees  which  they  now  declared  to  be  the 
only  lawful  money  of  India. 

"We  find  the  agents  of  the  Company  almost  everywhere  exacting 
their  tribute  with  extreme  rigour  and  raising  contributions  with  the 
utmost  cruelty.  We  see  them  carrying  a  kind  of  inquisition  into 
everv  family,  sitting  in  judgment  upon  every  fortune,  robbing  indis- 
criminately the  artizan  and  the  labourer.  .  .  .  In  consequence  of 
these  measures  we  find  despair  seizing  every  heart,  and  a  universal 
dejection  oppressing  every  mind  and  uniting  to  arrest  the  progress 
of  commerce,  agriculture,  and  population. 

"  In  consequence  of  these  measures,  when  the  famine  of  1770  oc- 
curred, the  people  were  impoverished  to  the  last  degree  and  totally 
unable  to  meet  it.  The  unhappy  Indians  were  every  day  perishing  by 
thousands  in  this  famine,  without  any  means  of  help  and  without  any 
resource,  not  being  able  to  procure  themselves  the  least  nourishment. 
They  were  to  be  seen  in  the  villages,  along  the  public  ways,  in  the 
midst  of  our  European  colonies,  pale,  meagre,  fainting,  emaciated, 
consumed  by  famine,  some  stretched  upon  the  ground  in  expectation 
of  dying,  others  scarce  able  to  drag  themselves  on  to  seek  for  any  fooil, 
and  throwing  themselves  at  the  feet  of  the  Europeans  intreating  them 
to  take  them  in  as  their  slaves. 

"To  this  description,  which  makes  humanity  shudder,  let  us  add 
other  objects  equally  shocking;  let  imagination  enlarge  upon  them  if 
possible  ;  let  us  represent  to  ourselves  infants  deserted,  some  expiring 
on  the  breasts  of  their  mothers;  everywhere  the  dying  and  the  dead 


330  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS 

mingled  together;  on  all  sides  the  groans  of  sorrow,  and  the  tears  of 
despair;  and  we  shall  then  have  some  faint  idea  of  the  horrible  spec- 
tacle Bengal  presented."     (Raynal.) 

This  picture  was  drawn  a  century  ago.  Has  the  situation  im- 
proved?    Let  England  herself  reply. 

' '  The  known  conditions  of  the  Indian  ryot's  daily  life  were  his  bare 
subsistence  in  times  of  plenty,  his  constant  hand-to-mouth  struggle 
with  want,  his  miserable  physique,  and  the  narrowness  of  the  mar- 
gin between  what  he  ordinarily  can  obtain  and  that  which  is  the 
irreducible  requirement  of  life  itself,  let  alone  health.  It  is  not  easy 
to  bring  home  to  the  English  people — save  by  such  shocking  pictures 
as  are  now  appearing  in  the  illustrated  papers — the  utter  destitution 
of  the  great  mass  of  the  Indian  people.  Perhaps  some  faint  idea  may 
be  formed  by  a  consideration  of  the  amount  of  the  wages  paid  on  re- 
lief works.  The  average  rate  may  be  taken  to  be  two  annas  (i^ 
pence,  or  3  cents  gold)  a  day  for  a  man,  one  and  a-half  annas  for  a 
woman,  and  one  anna  for  a  child  above  seven.  Without  making  any 
elaborate  calculations,  we  may  say  that  it  is  actually  possible  to 
maintain  life  in  the  people  in  times  of  famine  at  an  average  daily  rate 
of  one  and  a-half  annas  per  head  of  the  population.  This  means  three 
rupees  a  month,  or  thirty-six  rupees  a  year.  This  is  in  times  of  famine, 
when  the  staple  foods  of  the  people  average  double  the  normal  price. 
Now,  what  does  this  mean?  Thirty-six  rupees  are  equal  to  about 
^2  6s.  8d.  (a fraction  over  $10)  a  year;  yet  such  is  the  poverty  of  the 
people  of  India  that  when  a  scarcity  threatens  them  they  have  not 
even  this  small  amount  of  reserve  resources  upon  which  to  fall  back. 
.  .  .  Their  whole  existence  is  literally  one  of  hand-to-mouth,  and 
that  on  such  a  low  plane  of  vitality,  that  with  the  extra  pinch  of  the 
slightest  scarcity  they  die  like  rotten  sheep."  London  Daily  Chron- 
icle, Jan.  6th,  1897. 

It  is  not  for  the  idle  purpose  of  offering  a  cup  of  shame  to  England's 
lips  that  these  passages  are  adduced :  it  is  to  exhibit  the  cost  of  gold 
in  India;  gold  which  has  been  obtained  by  conquest,  by  piracy,  by 
treachery,  by  slavery,  and,  worst  of  all,  by  exactions  which  condemn 
a  vast  population  to  hopeless  indigence  and  famine. 

This  colossal  crime  cannot  be  palliated  by  shouldering  it  upon  the 
East  India  Company.  The  gold  of  India  went  sooner  or  later  to  the 
Crown. 

"  By  a  development,  the  steps  of  which  need  not  here  be  retraced, 
it  became  recognized  that  prize  captured  on  land  or  at  sea  was  the 
King's  property.  At  an  early  date  our  courts  took  the  view  thus  con- 
cisely stated  by  Lord  Brougham;  'That  prize  is  clearly  and  distinctly 
the  property  of  the  Crown;  that  the  sovereign  in  this  country,  the 
executive  Government  in  all  countries,  in  whom  is  vested  the  power 
of  levving  the  forces  of  the  state  and  of  making  peace  and  war,  is 
alone  possessed  of  all  property  in  prize,  is  a  principle  not  to  be  dis- 
puted.'    That  is  the  principle  applied  too  in  modern  times.      In  the 


PLUNDER    OF    ASIA.  337 

wars  with  France,  but  especially  in  our  Indian  wars,  the  matter  of 
booty  assumed  great  importance.  Prize  of  enormous  value,  in  the 
shape  of  treasure,  stores,  and  munitions  of  war,  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  coniiuerors,  in  the  first  Mysore  war,  at  the  capture  of  Serin^a- 
patam,  Pondicherry,  and  Serainporc,  on  tlie  concpiestof  the  Dckkan, 
and  in  the  war  aiijainst  the  Maharajah  of  ]5luiript)re  in  18:15.  Tiie 
catches  were  jjrodigious,  the  net  was  hauled  often,  and  the  conquerors 
became  versed  in  the  teciinicjue  of  pillage.  Between  1779  '^"tl  1858 
are  recorded  more  than  130  inii)ortant  captures  of  booty.  That  taken 
at  IJanda  and  Kirwee  was  valued  at  ^1^750, 000.  In  the  campaign  of 
1S25-6  in  Burmah,  booty  to  the  value  of  517,683  rupees  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Sir  Archibald  Campbell.  In  the  fort  at  JUnirtpore  was  found 
nearly  half  a  million  sterling,  and  at  Hyderabad  SirCharles  Napier, 
the  conqueror  of  Scinde,  captured  more  than  half  a  million  sterling. 
To  the  Indian  soldier,  the  chances  of  his  share  in  booty  counted  for 
much.  'You  and  I,' writes  Wellington  to  a  correspondent,  'know 
well  that  there  is  nothing  respecting  which  an  army  is  so  anxious,  as 
its  prize  money.'" — London  Contemporary  Review,  April,  1901. 

THE  PEACOCK  THRONE  OF  DELHI. 

In  a  smaller  building  adjoining  we  inspected  the  still  more  famous 
Dewanikhas,  or  hall  of  i)rivate  audience.  This  proved  to  be  a  scpiare 
pavilion  of  marble,  resting  on  massive  square  pillars  and  moresque 
circles  of  the  same  material,  all  highly  polished.  The  ornamentation 
is  simple  rather  than  elaborate.  The  apartment  is  small  and  oblong, 
opening  into  a  court  one  one  side,  to  the  river  Jumna  on  another,  to 
the  palace  gardens  on  a  third,  and  to  the  apartments  of  the  Zenana 
on  the  fourth.  The  outside  pillars  are  connected  by  superb  marble 
balustrades,  carved  with  graceful  filigree  work.  At  each  corner  of 
the  roof  is  a  marble  kiosk  with  a  small  gilt  dome.  The  ceiling  of 
this  Dewanikhas  was  one  entirely  conqiosed  of  gold  and  silver  screen 
work,  wrought  by  the  famous  Delhi  goldsmiths.  Here  stood  the  fam- 
ous Peacock  Throne,  unparalleled  in  rare  beauty  and  costliness  by 
any  other  royal  court  in  the  world.  Tavernier,  a  skillful  French  jew- 
eler, saw  it  and  made  a  computation  of  its  value.  He  calmly  esti- 
matetl  that  its  metallic  worth,  aside  from  its  claims  in  an  artistic  way, 
was  ^"6,000,000,  or  about  §30,000.000  in  American  money. 

This  magnificent  throne,  si.x  feet  long  and  four  feet  broad,  was 
composed  of  solid  gold  inlaid  with  rare  C)riental  gems.  It  received 
its  name  from  the  jeweled  images  of  peacocks  which  adorned  its 
canopy.  This*  canopy  was  also  of  gold,  supported  on  twelve  gold  pil- 
lars, and  hung  all  around  with  a  fringe  of  pearls.  On  each  side  of 
the  throne  stood  two  symbolical  chuttas,  or  umbrellas.  They  were 
made  of  crimson  velvet,  embroidered  with  gold  thread  and  pearls, 
and  were  equipped  with  solid  gold  hantlles  eight  feet  long,  studded 
with  diamonds!   'I'his  throne  was  constructed  by  .\ustin  de  Bordeau.x. 

The  Peacock  Throne  was  carried  away  by  the  Persian  Nadir  Shah, 
while  the  jeweled  ceiling  was  melted  down  by  the  Mahrattas  at  the 
time  of  their  invasion  in  1759. — Delhi  Corr.  XcwOrleans  Picayune. 


338  HISTORY    OF    THE   PRECIOUS    METALS. 


PLUNDER  OF  INDIA. 

1505.  Lope  Soarez  takes  Calicut  and  Cannamore;  also  seventeen 
large  Arabian  ships,  with  great  booty.     Taylor,  Hist.  Ind.  221. 

1 5 II.  Sir  Henry  Middleton  cruises  the  Red  Sea  with  three  ships 
and  piratically  plunders  both  Portuguese  and  Arabian  ships  of  treas- 
ure, which  he  and  Capt.  Saris  safely  convey  to  England.    Taylor,  289. 

1530.     Antonio  de  Silveira  sacks  the  rich  city  of  Surat.    Taylor. 

1537.  The  Portuguese  sack  many  Indian  cities,  which  they  after- 
wards burn,  condemning  men,  women  and  children  to  slavery.  Tay- 
lor, 282. 

1 543.  Prince  Mulloo  Khan  of  Beejapoor  takes  refuge  with  the  Por- 
tuguese at  Goa.  His  brother,  Ibrahim  Adil  Shah,  pays  the  Portu- 
guese ten  million  ducats  for  his  ransom.  The  latter  accept  the  money, 
but  refuse  to  surrender  the  refugee.     Taylor,  282. 

1553.  Mahomet  Shah  Soor,  of  the  Afghan  dynasty,  flings  away  his 
treasures,  even  shooting  golden  arrows  among  the  populace,  for  his 
amusement.     Taylor. 

1554.  The  Portuguese  play  Mulloo  Khan  for  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Dekkan,  but  not  succeeding,  they  abandon  him  to  his  enemies, 
who  capture  and  execute  him.     Taylor,  283. 

"The  Portuguese  chiefs  and  principal  officers  admitted  to  their 
table  a  multitude  of  those  singing  and  dancing  women  with  whom 
India  abounds.  Effeminacy  introduced  itself  into  their  houses  and 
armies.  The  ofificers  marched  to  meet  the  enemy  in  palanquins.  That 
brilliant  courage  which  had  subdued  so  many  (Oriental)  nations,  ex- 
isted no  longer  among  them.  The  Portuguese  soldiers  were  with 
difficulty  brought  to  fight,  except  where  there  was  a  prospect  of  plun- 
der. Such  corruption  prevailed  in  the  Portuguese  finances,  that  the 
"tributes  of  sovereigns,  the  revenues  of  provinces,  which  ought  to  have 
been  immense,  the  taxes  levied  in  gold,  silver  and  spices  on  the  in- 
habitants of  Hindostan,  were  not  sufficient  to  keep  up  even  a  few 
citadels,  and  to  fit  out  the  shipping  that  was  necessary  for  the  pro- 
tection of  trade. 

"  It  would  be  a  melancholy  circumstance  to  fix  our  attention  upon 
the  decline  of  a  nation  that  should  have  signalized  itself  by  exploits 
useful  to  mankind,  that  should  have  enlightened  the  world,  or  in- 
creased its  own  splendour  and  happiness,  without  being  the  scourge 
of  its  neighbours  or  of  distant  regions.  But  we  should  consider  there 
is  a  great  difference  between  the  hero  who  spills  his  blood  in  the  de- 
fence of  his  country  and  a  set  of  robbers,  who  exploit  a  foreign  land 
and  put  its  innocent  and  wretched  inhabitants  to  the  sword.  'Serve 
or  die,'  the  Portuguese  used  insolently  to  say  to  every  people  they 
met  in  their  rapid  progress,  marked  with  blood.  It  is  a  grateful  thing 
to  behold  the  downfall  of  such  tyranny,  and  a  consolation  to  expect 


PLUNDER    OK    INDIA.  339 

the  punishment  of  those  treacheries,  murders  and  cruelties  with  which 
it  has  been  preceded  or  followed."     'I'he  Abbe  Raynal,  i.  207-9. 

1557.  King  Ibrahim  Adil  Shah  of  lk'cja|)oor  pays  12  lacs  of  boons 
as  indemnity  to  Ramraj,  the  Hindu  rajah  of  Heejanugger.  His  son, 
Ali  Adil  Shah,  makes  an  alliance  with  the  rajah,  and  together  they 
march  to  the  conquest  of  Ahmednugger.     Taylor. 

1564.  Asof  K.han  Azbek,  a  predatory  Mongol  chieftain,  and  a  sub- 
ject of  Akbar,  the  Grand  Mogul,  attacks  the  Hindu  State  of  Guna, 
capturing  enormous  booty  in  jewels,  bullion  and  coin.  He  also  cap- 
tures Oude.  For  these  offences  he  was  punished  by  Akbar,  who  was 
determined  to  protect  his  Hindu  subjects.    Taylor. 

1564.  The  alUanceof  Ali  Adil  Shah  and  Ramraj  is  resented  by  the 
Mahometan  princes,  who  combine  against  them  and  advance  to  the 
river  Chrishna.  In  a  great  battle,  which  decided  the  control  of  India, 
the  Moslems  fired  bags  of  copper  money  from  their  cannons,  and  the 
Hindu  allies  were  cut  to  pieces  with  the  flying  coin.  Ramraj  was  de- 
feated, taken  prisoner  and  beheaded.  An  immense  treasure  fell  to 
the  conquerors.     Taylor. 

15S6-8S.  Cavendish  returns  to  England  from  a  piratical  voyage 
in  the  Orient,  with  great  booty  in  gold  and  silver.     Taylor. 

1605.  Akbar's  revenue  was  ;!^30,ooo,ooo.  At  his  death,  his  treas- 
ury contained  ^10,000,000.     Taylor,  229. 

161 1.  The  Grand  Mogul,  Jehangir,  marries  the  beautiful  widow, 
Noor  Jehan,  and  a  new  coinage  is  struck  in  her  name;  an  act  unpre- 
cedented in  the  annals  of  Islam.     Taylor. 

1623.  The  British  and  Persian  forces  unite  in  besieging  Ormuz, 
then  in  possession  of  the  Portuguese.  After  a  contest  of  two  months, 
the  place  is  taken,  with  booty  amounting  to  two  millions  sterling, 
which  is  duly  divided  between  the  concjuerors.  It  is  then  destrf)yed. 
McCulloch. 

164S.  Sevaji,  the  Mahratta  chieftain,  whose  miraculous  birth  and 
"divine  mission  to  deliver  India  from  Moslem  rule,"  had  been  re- 
vealed to  his  Virgin  mother  by  the  goddess  Bhowanee,  intercepts  a 
convoy  of  treasure  from  the  governor  of  Kulliam  to  the  Emperor 
Shah  Jehan,  and  conveys  it  to  his  capital  city  of  Chrishna.    Taylor. 

1653.  Sevaji  captures  Surat  and  the  Moslem  districts  of  Dowlat- 
abad,  and  carries  off  five  or  si.\  million  dollars  in  treasure.     Raynal. 

1656.  Shah  Jehan  orders  his  son  Auranzib,  viceroy  of  the  Dekkan, 
to  plunder  the  King  of  Golconda,  Abdulla  Kutub  Shah,  for  his  dis- 
obedience. Auranzib  surprises  and  plunders  Hyderabad,  and  levies 
a  fine  equal  to  one  million  pountls  sterling.     Taylor. 

1657.  Sevaji  takes  Joonair  and  captures  the  Moslem  treasury  with 
;^i 20,000.     Taylor.  337. 

1657.  .\uranzib  marches  to  Beejapoor,  at  that  time  the  finest  ami 
most  populous  city  of  India.  Ali  Adil  Shah  II.  offers  a  ransom  equal 
to  one  million  pounds  sterling.  Pending  the  negotiation,  .Shah  Jehan 
dies,  1658,  and  Auranzib  returns  to  Delhi  to  claim  his  father's  throne. 
He  finds  24  million  pounds  sterling  in  the  treasury,  besides  bullion 
and  jewels,  rich  beyond  precedent.     Taylor. 


34©  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

1668.  Josiah  Child,  now  at  the  head  of  the  British  East  India  Com- 
pany, together  with  his  brother,  John  Child,  governor  of  Bomba)^ 
piratically  seize  the  merchant  ships  of  the  Grand  Mogul,  especially 
the  rich  ones  from  Surat,  until  the  plunder  amounts  to  immense  sums, 
and  attracts  Auranzib's  army  to  Bombay  to  demand  restitution,  the 
terms  of  which,  as  described  by  Raynal,  are  extremely  humiliating  to 
British  pride. 

1672.  Auranzib  levies  the  hated  jezia,  or  capitation  tax,  upon  the 
Hindus,  exciting  a  general  commotion,  which  Sevaji  turns  to  account. 

1675.     Sevaji  plunders  Khandesh  and  Berar  of  great  booty. 

1679.  Sevaji  plunders  the  Carnatic,  annexes  the  territory  west 
and  south  of  the  river  Chrishna,  and  levies  "choath."  He  dies  in 
the  following  year.      Choath  is  a  tax  of  one-fourth  of  the  produce. 

1686.  Prince  Muazzim  plunders  Hyderabad  and  marches  upon  Gol- 
conda,  whose  king,  Abu  Hassam  Kootub,  purchases  peace  with  the 
sum  of  two  millions  sterling  in  money  and  jewels. 

1687.  Auranzib  repudiates  a  treaty  which  he  had  made  with  the 
king  of  Golconda,  whose  treasury  he  plunders  and  whose  dynasty 
(the  Kootub  Shahy)  he  overthrows. 

1702.  The  Mahrattas  under  Pam  Naik,  plunders  portions  of  Gu- 
zerat  and  Khandesh. 

1705.     The  Mahrattas  plunder  Malwah.     Taylor, 

1739.  Nadir,  Shah  of  Persia,  after  expelling  the  Afghan  monarch 
of  that  empire  and  defeating  the  Turks,  takes  Cabul,  1738,  Bokhara, 
Candahar,  Chorasmia  (Kaurezm),  and  many  other  cities  and  provin- 
ces, with  great  booty.  In  1739  he  ravages  the  northern  provinces  of 
India  and  captures  Delhi,  killing  100,000  of  its  inhabitants,  regardless 
of  sex  or  age,  and  capturing  treasure  to  the  value  of  ;^i 25, 000,000. 

1740.  Serefraz  Khan,  an  unfaithful  viceroy  of  the  Grand  Mogul, 
is  defeated  by  the  Afghan,  Ali  Verdi  Khan,  a  rival  viceroy,  when  the 
conqueror  enters  Moorshedabad,  in  Bengal,  which  was  tributary  to 
Delhi,  captures  one  million  pounds  sterling  in  coin  and  nearly  an 
equal  sum  in  plate,  jewels,  etc.,  all  of  which  is  transmitted  to  Delhi. 
Taylor,  398. 

1742.  The  Mahrattas  plunder  the  bank  belonging  to  Juggut  Sett, 
of  Moorshedabad,  obtaining  two  millions  sterling. 

1748.  Through  the  defeat  and  assassination  of  Nazirjing,  Soubah 
of  the  Dekkan,  his  treasure  of  ^^2, 000, 000  and  jewels  valued  at 
^500,000  is  acquired  by  the  victors,  the  French  troops  receiving 
^50,000  and  the  French  East  India  Company  an  equal  sum;  besides 
Pondicherry,  with  an  annual  revenue  of  96,000  rupees,  Karical  106,- 
000,  and  Mausulipatam  144,000  rupees,  in  all  a  revenue  of  ^43,250 
sterling,  and  later  on  the  provinces  of  Mustaphanagur,  Ellore,  Rajah- 
mundy,  and  Chicacole  in  full  sovereignty,  whose  revenues  amounted 
to  42,87,000  rupees.      Macgregor,  iv,  351. 

1749.  The  Mahratta  Brahmins,  under  Sanhojee,  offer  the  English 
immense  sums  and  vast  territorial  concessions  for  their  aid  against 
the  Moslems.  This  offer  being  readily  accepted.  Major  Lawrence 
and  Capt.  Cope  advance  to  Devicotta,  which  they  capture  from  the 


PLUNDER    OF    INDIA.  34! 

Moslems,  with  great  booty.  Devicotta  and  the  adjacent  territory  are 
ceded  to  the  English  by  the  rajah  of  Tanjore.  This  is  practically  the 
bcginnning  of  the  British  conquest  of  India. 

1750.  The  alliance  of  Joseph  Francis,  afterwards  Marquis  of  Du- 
pleix,  commander  of  the  French  forces  in  India,  is  secured  by  Moz- 
uffer  Jung,  the  newly-crowned  Soubah  of  the  Dekkan,  who  appoints 
Dupleix  gt)vernor  of  all  the  Mogul  territory  south  of  the  Chrishna 
river,  with  capital  at  Pondicherry  and  the  prerogative  of  coinage. 
Mausulipatam  and  its  dependencies,  with  its  annual  revenues  of  five 
lacs  (translated  ;^5o.ooo)  are  also  ceded  to  France.  Twenty  lacs  in 
cash,  besides  gratuities  to  his  officers,  are  granted  to  hini  from  the 
treasury  of  the  Soubah. 

In  1754  Ahmed  Shah  Abdalla,  king  of  Afghanistan,  had  marched 
from  Kaiulaliar  and  plundcreil  the  oft-plundered  Delhi,  "extorting 
a  vast  sum  of  money  from  the  peojile  by  torture  and  massacre." 
Then  he  proceeded  to  the  rich  city  of  Muttra,  where,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  a  Hindu  religious  festival,  he  slaughtered  and  despoiled 
thousands  of  the  defenceless  inhabitants.  In  consequence  of  the  dis- 
turbed condition  of  his  feudalised  and  distracted  empire,  the  Grand 
Mogul  was  so  far  unable  to  resent  these  outrages  that  he  permitted 
the  .\fghan  to  name  a  commander-in-chief  for  his  armv.  In  1759 
.Ahmed  Siiah  again  set  forth  from  Kandahar,  this  time  to  punish  the 
Mahrattas  for  plundering  the  Moslem  city  of  Delhi.  .After  much 
manouvering  and  delay,  the  two  armies  met  on  the  field  of  Paniput, 
January  6,  1761,  when  the  Mahrattas,  70,000  strong,  with  300  pieces 
oi  cannon,  were  utterly  destroyed,  the  prisoners  being  murdered  in 
cold  blood  and  the  women  and  children  sold  as  slaves.  The  spoil 
consisted  of  27  lacs  of  gold  mohurs.  and  "of  the  silver  and  copper 
(money)  the  total  cannot  be  computed."  Grant  Duff.  The  remains 
of  twelve  contending  powers  now  devastated  India  from  end  to  end: 
the  Moguls,  Rohillas, Oudhs.  Hengalese  (under  Clive),  Rajpoots,  .Mah- 
rattas, Jats, Dekkanese,Mysoreans,CarnatiGS,  Tanjorese,  and  Cochin- 
ese;  to  say  nothing  of  the  Portuguese.  French  and  English  The 
plunder  was  immense.  Its  cost  was  simply  blood:  blood  and  slavery. 
Says  Taylor,  "  The  shameless  demands  of  my  countrymen  upon  Meer 
Jaffier  for  private  presents  and  losses  were  pursued  with  more  than 
usually  stringent  rapacity,"  until  no  less  than  ^350,000  were  dis- 
bursed to  private  claimants,  and  Meer  Jaftier  was  harried  into  his 
his  grave.  Mr.  James  Mill,  taking  a  more  comprehensive  view  of 
dive's  operations  in  Hengal,  computes  tiie  booty  at  ^^5, 940, 498  in 
money  alone,  to  say  nothing  of  other  property.  Hist.  British  India, 
III,  326-9. 

1757.  Robert  (afterwards  Lord)  Clive,  together  with  Watson. 
Drake,  Watts  and  other  British  commanders,  swear  "on  the  Holy 
Gospels  "  to  lend  all  their  forces  to  Meer  Jaffier  in  his  design  to  usurp 
the  throne  of  his  master,  Suraj-nd-Dowlab,  the  Nawab,  Nabob,  or 
Soubah,  of  Bengal,  Baharand  C)rissa:  Metr  Jaffier  being  at  that  time 
in  command  of  the  Nawab's  army.  Having  by  this  device  practically 
disarmed  his  allv.  Colonel  Clive,  who  had  secretiv  determined  to  con- 


342  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

quer  these  rich  provinces  for  himself,  called  a  meeting  of  his  officers 
at  Cutwah,  on  the  21st  of  June,  1756;  when  he  threw  off  the  mask  and 
imparted  his  treacherous  design  to  them.  The  enormous  booty  which 
he  held  in  view  quieted  their  consciences,  and  the  next  day,  under 
his  orders,  the  British  army  crossed  the  Ganges,  and  with  a  loss  of  72 
killed  and  wounded,  gained  the  "battle"  of  Plassy,  and  practically 
the  paramountship  of  India.  After  permitting  the  defeated  Suraj- 
ud-Dowlah  to  be  assassinated,  and  placing  Meer  Jaffier  upon  a  puppet 
throne,  which  Clive  held  completely  under  control,  the  labours  of  the 
army  were  devoted  to  the  main  object  of  the  campaign.  This  was 
plunder — plunder  of  the  richest  and  most  populace  provinces  in  the 
world.  Part  of  the  nefarious  transaction  with  Meer  Jaffier  consisted 
of  a  promised  bribe  of  3o]acsof  rupees  (^300,000)  to  Omichundthe 
banker,  for  betraying  Suraj-ud  Dowlah.  This  sum  was  regarded  as 
one-twentieth  portion  of  the  Nawab's  treasure,  which  therefore  con- 
sisted of  600  lacs,  or  six  million  pounds,  about  thirty  million  dollars. 
The  promise  to  Omichund,  after  being  reduced  to  20  lacs,  was  written 
upon  a  red  paper,  which  was  signed  by  Clive  and  all  his  officers,  ex- 
cept Admiral  Watson,  who  refused  to  become  a  party  to  the  fraud. 
With  this  promise  in  his  possession,  and  relying  upon  the  good  faith 
of  the  British,  Omichund,  who  might  have  warned  his  master  in  time 
to  summon  forces  capable  of  defeating  the  British,  kept  silence  until 
after  the  conflict  at  Plassy,  when  he  claimed  his  reward,  and  was 
cooly  told  by,  Clive  and  Scrafton  that  the  promise,  on  account  of  its 
being  on  red  paper,  was  invalid,  and  that  he  was  to  have  nothing: 
an  announcement  which  upset  the  traitor's  reason,  so  that  shortly 
afterwards  he  died  a  drivelling  idiot.  This  act,  says  Taylor,  himself 
an  Englishman,  was  one  of  "deliberate  and  unworthy  treachery  "  on 
the  part  of  Clive.  In  addition  to  the  concessions  specified  in  the  treaty 
of  alliance  with  Clive,  Meer  Jaffier  paid  from  the  Nawab's  treasury 
50  lacs  to  the  British  army  and  navy,  28  lacs  to  Clive  as  a  member 
of  the  "  Committee  of  Calcutta,"  24  lacs  to  each  of  the  other  mem- 
bers, and  in  addition,  160  lacs  to  Clive  himself:  altogether  about  400 
lacs.  "The  first  installment  of  80  lacs  was  brought  to  Calcutta  in  a 
triumphal  procession  of  boats  from  Moorshedabad."  The  exactions 
of  Clive  did  not  rest  until  he  had  completely  exhausted  the  usurper's 
treasury.  Taylor,  433-37.  He  afterwards  made  a  treaty  with  the 
Grand  Mogul,  Meer  Jaffier's  suzerain,  by  which  he  secured  a  jahgire, 
or  appanage,  worth  three  lacs,  or;^3o,ooo  per  annum.  Taylor,433-9. 
After  this  he  deposed  Meer  Jaffier,  and  for  an  immense  bribe  pro- 
claimed Cossim  AH  Khan  in  his  stead.    Raynal,  11,  171. 

In  1757  the  Mahrattas,  under  Sudasheo  Rao,  bombarded  Sering- 
gapatam,  and  ransomed  it  for  32  lacs.  After  defeating  the  Nizam 
Ali  in  the  field,  and  exacting  as  indemnity  the  perpetual  jahgire  of 
provinces  yielding  62  lacs  annual  revenue,  he  marched  to  Delhi,  the 
capital  of  the  Grand  Mogul,  which  he  captured  and  plundered,  the 
silver  ceiling  of  the  imperial  palace  alone  yielding  17  lacs,  or  ;£i']o,- 
000.  With  this  crowning  misfortune  the  Mogul  Empire  of  India  prac- 
tically ended. 


PLUNDER    OF    INDIA.  343 

1765,  August  13,  On  this  day  the  Grand  Mogul  was  seated  on  a 
throne  constructed  of  the  dining-table  and  an  armchair  in  LordClive's 
tent,  and  made  to  sign  a  firman  which  conferred  upon  the  English  in 
perpetuity  the  three  provinces  of  Bengal,  whicii  possessed  a  popula- 
rion  of  25.000,000,  and  a  revenue  of  ^"4,000,000  sterling,  less  26  lacs 
pension  concedeil  to  the  Emperor,  who  was  no  longer  an  Emperor, 
ami  50  lacs  to  the  Nawab,  wlio  was  no  longer  a  Nawab.  Clive  also 
obtained  a  formal  grant  of  the  whole  of  the  Circarsdown  to  the  river 
Chrishna.  Substantially,  these  domains  included  the  entire  north- 
eastern half  of  Hindostan.  Taylor,  463.  In  1768  the  pension  to  the 
Emperor  was  repudiated,  and  the  crown  domains  of  Corah  and  Allah- 
abad, which  did  not  pay,  were  sold  to  his  so-called  Vizier  for  50  lacs. 
Rohilkhund,  a  province  belonging  to  the  Indian  allies  of  the  British, 
was  delivered  over  to  the  same  minister  to  be  plundered,  the  con- 
sideration being  40  lacs,  an  immediate  gain  and  an  eternal  infamy. 
Says  Taylor:  "  It  was  treacherous,  because  the  Rohillas  had  already 
professed  their  attachment  to  the  English  and  high  trust  in  their  good 
faith."  Tiie  Vizier  commenced  his  operations  in  Rohilkhund  by  de- 
manding "  two  crores,  or  two  millions  sterling,"  by  way  of  immunity. 
This  demand  being  refused,  a  detachment  of  the  British  troops  were 
sent  in  1774  to  assist  the  Vizier  in  plundering  the  province.  Upon 
paying  the  Vizier  a  sum  of  15  lacs,  hostilities  were  suspendeil.  The 
ne.xt  operation  of  the  British  was  to  "support  the  claims  t)f  the  Be- 
gums, tiie  mother  and  witlow  of  Surdj-ud-Dowlah,  to  the  whole  of 
the  treasure  amassed  by  him,  wliich  was  about  two  millions  sterling. " 
These  demamls  occasioned  a  mutiny  of  tiie  Nawab's  army,  "which 
was  only  quelled  by  the  slaughter  of  many  thousands." 

In  January,  1775,  the  British  authorities  hired  out  3,000  of  their 
soUliers  to  Rughoba,  a  rebellious  chief  of  the  Mahratta  Brahmins,  in 
Consideration  of  the  cession  of  Salsetle  and  Bassein,  in  perpetuitv,  and 
the  assignment  of  jahgires,  amounting  to  24  lacs  per  annum.  Then 
they  turned  around  and  for  a  payment  of  12  lacs  deserted  Rughoba 
and  agreed  to  support  the  legitimate  chief  of  the  Malirattas,  byname 
Mahdoo  Narrain,  a  posthumous  child  forty  days  old,  offering  Rug- 
hoba a  pension  of  25,000  rupees  a  month  to  abandon  his  pretensions. 
Upon  his  refusal  to  accept  this  illusive  grant,  they  again  changed 
sides  and  undertook  to  support  him,  with  the  result  that  the  allies 
were  defeated,  Rughoba  made  a  prisouer  and  the  British  obliged  to 
yield  up  the  concessions  which  they  had  so  unworthily  acquired.  This 
was  on  the  13th  January,  1779. 

While  the  British  forces  were  employed  in  these  sordid  and  dis- 
honourable transactions,  the  sole  object  of  which  was  to  plunder  the 
Indies  by  dividing  its  distracted  factions  and  nibbling  from  each  in 
turn,  the  American  colonies  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  world  seized 
the  opportunity  to  assert  their  independence.  On  the  19th  of  .Vpril, 
1775,  the  battle  of  Lexington  was  fought;  on  the  19th  October.  17S1, 
Lord  Cornwallis  laid  down  his  arms  at  Yorktown.  The  cost  of  the 
Asiatic  spoil,  with  which  Clive  and  Hastings  filled  the  British  treas- 
ury, was  no  less  than  the  empire  of  the  earth  ;  for  who  can  doubt  that 


344  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

with  America  still  subject  to  its  sway,  the  British  crown  would  have 
attained  that  universal  dominion  of  the  civilized  world  which  Csesar 
once  established  at  Rome  and  for  which  the  nations  of  Europe  have 
ever  since  contended? 

When  Hyder  All,  Sultan  of  Mysore  A.  D.  1760-82,  took  Bednur,  or 
Nagur,  in  Mysore,  he  captured  ^^12, 000, 000  in  treasure,  and  in  order 
to  coin  it,  established  a  mint  there.  Lock,  307.  The  sum  is  deduced 
from  an  erroneous  valuation  of  the  billon  money  of  the  period. 

"During  the  whole  of  this  time  (the  spoliation  of  India), the  Ganges 
was  covered  with  carcasses ;  the  fields  and  highways  were  choked  with 
them;  infectious  vapours  filled  the  air  and  diseases  multiplied;  and 
one  evil  succeeding  to  another,  it  was  likely  to  happen  that  the  plague 
(of  1770-71)  might  have  carried  off  the  remainder  of  the  inhabitants 
of  that  unfortunate  kingdom  (Bengal).  It  appears  by  calculations 
pretty  generally  admitted,  that  the  famine  carried  off  a  fourth  part, 
that  is  to  say  about  three  millions.  .  .  .  Yet,  although  all  the 
Europeans,  especially  the  English,  possessed  magazines,  these  even 
were  respected  as  well  as  private  houses;  no  revolt,  no  massacre,  nor 
the  least  violence  prevailed.  The  unhappy  Hindus,  resigned  to  de- 
spair, confined  themselves  to  begging  for  succour  which  they  did  not 
obtain,  and  peaceably  awaited  the  relief  of  death.  What  disorder, 
what  fury,  what  atrocious  acts,  what  crimes  would  have  been  com- 
mitted had  a  like  calamity  visited  Europe!  "    Raynal,  11,  189. 

In  1773  the  revenues  of  Bengal,  exacted  by  the  British  through 
the  medium  of  a  puppet  throne,  amounted  to  $14,250,000,  of  which 
about  $12,275,000  were  "absorbed  by  plunder  or  the  necessary  ex- 
penses "  (of  the  British  East  India  Company).  The  agents  of  the  Com- 
pany exacted  the  tributes  with  extreme  rigour  and  raised  contribu- 
tions with  the  utmost  severity.  They  carried  a  kind  of  inquisition 
into  every  family;  robbing  indiscriminately  the  artizan  and  the  la- 
bourer and  punished  others  whom  they  suspected  of  being  rich.  They 
sold  favour  and  credit  as  well  to  oppress  the  innocent  as  to  screen  the 
guilty.  Despair  seized  every  heart,  dejection  oppressed  every  mind, 
and  these  united  to  arrest  progress  and  discourage  commerce,  agri- 
culture, and  population."     Raynal,  11,  177-185. 

1773.  The  revenues  of  Bengal  in  1773  rose  to  71,004,465  livres, 
but  61,379,437  livres  were  absorbed  in  plunder,  or  the  necessary  ex- 
penses.    Raynal,  iii,  177. 

In  1775  Cossim  Ali  Khan,  tired  with  being  plundered  by  Clive, 
united  with  the  nabob  of  Benares  in  a  campaign  against  the  foreign- 
ers, with  the  result  that  he  and  his  coadj  utor  were  defeated  and  forced 
to  pay  the  victors  a  sum  of  about  $1,600,000.      Raynal,  11,  172. 

In  1779  Hyder  Ali,  a  Mahometan  chieftain  of  Mysore,  who,  during 
the  decline  of  the  Mogul  dynasty,  had  gradually  risen  to  power,  until 
as  Nawab  of  Mysore  he  claimed  for  himself  the  throne  which  the 
British  had  overturned,  established  his  capital  at  Seringapatam,  de- 
clared a  Holy  War  against  the  infidels  (British),  and  in  1780  defeated 
them  in  an  action  between  Arcot  and  Madras,  and  afterwards  besieged 
and  captured  and  plundered  Arcot.     While  this  contest  was  waged 


PLUNDKR    OK    INDIA.  345 

for  dominions  to  which  neither  party  had  the  least  right,  Mysore  suf- 
fered from  the  devastations  of  both  of  them,  with  tlie  result  that  a 
famine  afflicted  the  province,  which  carried  off  myriads  of  its  unfor- 
tunate inhabitants:  the  price  of  the  gold,  which  meanwhile  was  accu- 
mulating at  Madras  and  Seringajiatam.  In  1782  Hyder  Ali  died  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Tippoo  Sail),  in  whose  service,  as  a  sergeant 
of  artillery,  was  the  eel ebrateil  Bernadotte, afterwards  King  of  Sweden. 
After  capturing  Bednore,  where  the  British  are  charged  with  having 
violated  the  text  of  their  capitulation  by  secretly  conveying  away 
the  treasure,  Tippoo  took  Mangalore,  and  there  dictated  those  insult- 
ing terms  of  surrender  to  the  hitherto  invincible  foreigners  which 
cannot  be  read  without  indignation. 

Sultan  Tippoo  Saib,  17S5-99,  appears  to  have  worked  the  mines 
of  Mysore  with  great  activity,  and  for  this  purpose  he  condemned  to 
practical  slavery  a  large  portion  of  its  lower  castes.  A  mine  at  Mar- 
curpam,in  Mysore,  which  he  placed  in  charge  of  a  Brahmin,  was  worked 
for  a  while,  then  abandoned  as  unprofitable.  (Ball's  Geology  of  India, 
p.  185.)  A  silver  mine,  eight  miles  north  of  Kadapah,  in  Madras,  was 
treated  the  same  way.  (Ball,  233.)  The  gold  mines  of  the  Coimba- 
tore  district  appear  to  have  been  profitable,  for  u|)on  the  approach  of 
Gen.  Cornwallis,  in  1792,  Tippoo  took  the  trouble  to  fill  the  shafts 
with  waste  rock  in  order  to  discourage  the  British  from  working  the 
mines.     Ball,  310. 

In  1781  the  British  authorities  in  Bengal  suddenly  demanded  from 
the  rajah  of  Benares,  who  was  paying  them  a  rental  of  22^  lacs  per 
annum,  a  further  cash  payment  of  5  lacs  and  the  service  of  2,000 
horsemen.  This  being  refused,  the  British  threatened  hostilities, 
whereupon  the  rajah  offered  20  lacs  as  indemnity.  The  British  de- 
mand was  now  raised  to  50  lacs,  and  upon  this  being  refused,  they  be- 
sieged his  capital  of  liiilgeghur,  and  captured  it  with  plunder  amount- 
ing to  50  lacs,  which  were  distributed  to  the  soldiers.  The  rajah's 
rental  was  afterwards  raised  from  22^  to  40  lacs. 

In  1789  the  rajah  of  Travancore  ransomed  from  the  Dutch  two 
coast  towns  which  Tippoo  Saib  declared  belonged  to  his  ally  the  rajah 
of  Cochin,  but  which  the  British  claimed  as  within  their  sphere  of  in- 
fluence. Lord  Cornwallis,  who,  after  his  disastrous  camjiaign  in  Vir- 
ginia, was  in  command  of  the  British  forces  at  Madras,  was  prepared 
to  resist  Tippoo's  claim,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  him  to  that  effect.  This 
letter  was  withheld  by  Mr.  Holland,  the  governor  of  Madras,  who 
then  secretly  approached  the  rajah  and  offered  to  sell  him  the  service 
of  those  British  troops  who  were  designed  by  Cornwallis  to  be  em- 
ployed in  the  public  interest.  This  plot  i)eing  e.xposed.  Holland  fled  to 
England,and  a  campaign  was  begun  against  Tippoo  with  15,000  troops, 
who,  however,  were  forced  by  the  indomitable  Moslem  to  retreat. 

In  1790  Lord  Cornwallis  seized  the  revenues  of  the  Carnatic,  which 
had  been  assigned  to  the  Nawab,  and  in  1791,  with  the  assistance  of 
the  Mahrattas.  he  opened  a  campaign  against  Tippoo,  in  which  Ban- 
galore, Nundidroog,  Savandroog.  Rayacotta,  and  other  places  were 
successively  captured  and  plundered.      On  the  5th  of  February  he 


346  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

besieged  Seringapatam  with  so  vast  a  force  that  on  March  ipth  Tip- 
poo  was  induced  to  offer  terms.  This  consisted  of  one-half  of  his 
dominions,  the  EngHsh  share  being  Malabar,  Coorg,  and  the  Barah 
Mahal  and  ^3,300,000  sterling  in  cash,  one-half  down  and  the  re- 
mainder within  a  year. 

The  treaty  of  Seringapatam  having  virtually  established  the  British 
paramountship  of  India,  Lord  Cornwallis  at  once  proceeded  to  secure 
its  fruits.  The  feudal  revenues  exacted  by  the  Zemindars  were  based 
upon  a  valuation  of  land  fixed  in  the  i6th  century  during  the  reign  of 
Akbar  the  Great.  These  were  now  so  greatly  increased  that  "  the 
culcivators  were  depressed  to  an  extent  hardly  realisable. "  The  civil 
service  was  closed  to  all  natives,  and  Mr.  Wilberforce's  motion  in 
Parliament,  to  permit  English  missionaries,  schoolmasters,  and  other 
instructors  in  religion  and  knowledge,  to  enter  India,  was  rejected, 
Parker,  529. 

In  1795  a.  war  broke  out  concerning  a  division  of  plunder  between 
the  Mahrattas  and  the  Nizam  of  Hyderabad,  in  other  words,  between 
the  Brahmins  and  Moslems,  in  which  each  party  brought  into  the 
field  of  Khurdlah  upwards  of  125,000  men,  when  the  Nizam  was  de- 
feated and  obliged  to  submit  to  a  payment  of  300  lacs,  one-third 
down,  and  the  surrender  of  districts  yielding  35  lacs  per  annum.  Al- 
though the  Nizam  had  a  brigade  of  British  troops  in  his  pay,  they 
were  instructed  by  Sir  John  Shore  to  take  no  part  in  the  fray,  it  being 
the  policy  of  the  administration  to  let  the  natives  destroy  each  other 
as  rapidly  as  possible. 

In  1797  a  dynastic  war  broke  out  in  Oudh,  in  which,  for  an  annual 
payment  of  76  lacs.  Sir  John  Shore  took  sides  with  one  of  the  con- 
testants, and  seated  Saadut  Ali  on  his  pasteboard  throne.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year,  in  order  to  raise  200  lacs,  the  Peshwar,  or  sovereign  of 
the  Mahrattas,  gave  up  Poona  to  pillage,  the  native  bankers  being 
his  principal  victims.  Unspeakable  tortures  were  inflicted  by  his 
orders  upon  these  unfortunate  men,  until  at  length  the  required  sum 
was  extorted  from  them. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  Lord  Morington,  afterwards  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  the  new  governor-general,  in  1798,  it  was  determined  to 
make  an  attempt  upon  the  capital  of  Tippoo  Saib,  in  which  vast 
treasures  were  believed  to  be  deposited.  The  movement  began  by 
inducing  the  Nizam  of  Hyderabad  to  withhold  the  pay  of  and  dismiss 
his  force  of  40,000  sepoys,  who  had  been  organized  and  drilled  by 
French  officers.  Upon  assurances  by  the  British  authorities  that  the 
sepoys  would  be  paid,  this  force  of  mercenaries  was  either  re-enlisted 
or  disbanded;  and  thus  one  of  Tippoo's  resources  (for  he  was  the 
Nizam's  suzerain),  was  destroyed.  War  was  then  declared,  and  the 
British,  under  Lord  Harris,  advanced  upon  Seringapatam  with  21,000 
European  and  native  troops,  10,000  of  the  rebellious  Nizam's  con- 
tingent and  4,000  of  the  purchased  sepoys,  altogether  35,000  men, 
besides  a  reserve  of  6,000  Europeans  under  Generals  Stuart  and 
Hartley.  On  the  6th  of  April  the  capital  was  invested.  The  British 
demands  were  ^^2, 000, 000  sterling  in  cash  and  one-half  of  the  Sultan's 


PLUNDER    OK    INDIA.  347 

dominions.  This  being  refused,  the  city  was  bombarded,  and  on  the 
3rd  of  May  it  was  carried  by  assault  and  devoted  to  pillage.  The 
scenes  of  carnage  beggar  all  description.  The  brave  Tippoo  died 
sword  in  hanii  fighting  to  the  last.  The  i^liinder  of  gold  and  silver 
distributed  to  the  army  amounted  to  $7,500,000,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  jewels,  arms  and  furniture  that  fell  to  the  victors.  The  entire 
force  of  'I'ippoo  Saib,  consisting  of  22,000  men,  was  cut  to  pieces.  The 
British  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  i,  164  men,  many  of  whom  were 
sepoys.      This  was  the  cost  of  the  gold. 

If  these  details  of  carnage,  intrigue  and  plunder  seem  to  have  been 
followed  to  a  greater  e.xtent  than  the  general  character  of  the  present 
work  would  warrant,  it  has  not  been  without  a  purpose  which,  to  the 
rellecting  reader,  will  carry  its  own  apology.  We  have  no  details  of 
the  circumstances  umler  which  Asia  was  plundered  by  Darius,  Alex- 
ander, or  Seleucus.  We  have  but  few  details  of  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  was  plundered  by  the  Moslems.  The  barbarities  of  the  Por- 
tuguese reach  uschietly  through  Portuguese  writers,  whose  partiality 
has  left  us  only  glimpses  of  what  took  place.  The  conquest  and  plun- 
der of  Asia  by  the  British,  as  told  by  their  own  historians,  comes  to 
us  in  detail,  and  it  is  the  only  one  which  enables  us  to  compute  with 
any  degree  of  i)recision  the  cost  of  that  gold  which  forms  the  bulk 
of  the  world's  monetary  symbols  of  the  present  day.  W'c  have  been 
taught  that  this  cost  was  the  economical  value  of  the  labour  devoted 
to  its  production.  We  now  know  that  this  teaching  is  false;  that  the 
cost  was  blood  and  slavery,  and  that  with  such  cost  its  value  has  no 
relation.     There  is  no  known  connection  between  them. 


348  HISTORY   OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


PLUNDER  OF  CHINA. 

In  consequence  of  a  famine  in  1342,  which  destroyed  13  millions  of 
people,  a  general  revolution  broke  out  in  China,  1358,  headed  bv  a 
Buddhist  monk,  Chu-yuen-chang,  who  overthrew  the  Mongol  dynasty 
and  established  the  Ming,  a  native  Chinese  dynasty,  which  lasted  276 
years  (1368-1644).  The  progress  of  the  revolution  was  facilitated  by 
the  issuance  of  government  paper  notes,  some  few  specimens  of  which 
are  still  extant.'  It  was  under  the  reign  of  one  of  the  Ming  Emper- 
ors that  commenced  those  inroads  of  the  Mantchu  Tartars,  1522-67, 
which  eventually  overthrew  the  native  dynasty  and  established  the 
present  (Mantchu)  sovereignty;  and  it  was  during  this  period  of 
trouble  and  civil  strife  in  China  that  the  Portuguese.  Spanish,  Dutch 
and  English,  successively  attacked  and  plundered  its  coasts. 

"  It  was  in  the  year  149S  that  the  Portuguese,  under  Vasco  de  Gama, 
made  their  way  around  the  Cape.  In  15  10,  under  Alboquerque,  they 
treacherously  seized  the  East  Indian  city  of  Goa,  and  leaving  a  gar- 
rison in  it,  sailed  away  to  Malacca,  which  they  had  seen  and  coveted 
in  1508.  This  great  city  they  treacherously  and  piratically  captured. 
The  superiority  of  their  arms  will  be  understood  when  it  is  stated 
that  this  act  was  committed  by  only  eight  Portuguese,  assisted  by 
two  hundred  Malabar  natives.  They  plundered  Malacca  of  '  a  booty 
so  enormous  that  the  Quinto,or  fifth, of  the  King  of  Portugal  amounted 
to  200,000  gold  cruzados,  a  sum  equivalent  to  $5,000,000,' exclusive 
of  ships,  naval  stores,  artillery,  and  other  property.  Malacca  was  at 
that  time  a  vassal  state  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  and  our  first  acquaint- 
ance with  maritime  Europe  was,  therefore,  begun  on  its  part  by  the 
greatest  act  of  piracy  the  world  has  ever  witnessed.  Pizarro's  plun- 
dering of  Peru,  committed  a  few  years  later,  was  nothing  compared 
with  it.  Hearing  at  Malacca  of  the  great  Chinese  cities  to  the  north- 
east, and  hoping,  no  doubt,  to  pillage  them  as  his  companions  had 
pillaged  Goa  and  Malacca,  one  of  the  Portuguese,  Rafael  Perestralo, 
sailed  away  in  a  junk  to  view  our  coast.  Finding  the  Chinese  better 
prepared  for  pirates  than  he  expected,  he  returned  to  Malacca. 

"  We  have  our  own  theory  concerning  the  sources  of  your  present 
riches.  We  ascribe  it,  in  part,  to  your  gains  from  the  piratical  con- 
quest, enslavement,  and  murderous  extinction  of  the  American  races, 
but  chiefly  to  the  profitable  trade  with  the  Orient.  From  the  open- 
ing of  this  trade  to  1640,  when  the  Portuguese  were  driven  from 
Japan,  and  the  British  first  acquired  territory  in  Hindostan,  three  of 
your  European  nations  alone  took  a  thousand  million  dollars  in  gold 
and  silver  from  Asia;  two-thirds  as  much  as  they  wrung  from  all 

'  Only  three  specimens  of  the  Ming  paper  notes  are  known  to  be  extant.  One  of 
these  is  in  the  possession  of  the  writer.  It  is  about  eight  inches  long  and  four  inches 
wide,  printed  in  black  ink  with  a  red  countermark  :  the  seal  of  the  Chinese  treasury. 


PLUNDER    OV    CHINA.  349 

America  during  the  same  period.  From  Malacca,  alone,  they  took 
twentv-five  millions;  from  Jajian,  up  to  the  date  mentioned,  four  hun- 
dred millions;  from  India  and  China  still  greater  sums.  Add  the  in- 
terest on  these  sums  for  three  hundretl  years  anil  subtract  the  total 
from  your  present  wealth,  then  how  much  would  there  be  left? 

"  In  1565  the  Spaniards  in  Mexico  sent  a  fleet  to  the  Philijipine  Is- 
lands, which  they  captured  and  occupied.  Untler  assurances  of  ]ir<)- 
tection  from  these  marauders,  a  consitlerable  number  of  Chinamen 
were  induced  to  reside  upon  the  the  islands,  which,  under  the  effects 
of  their  industry  and  enterprise,  became  as  rich  and  productive  as  be- 
fore thev  had  been  poor  and  barren.  In  1602  there  were  upward  of 
twenty  thousand  Chinese  in  Manila,  whilst  the  number  of  Spaniards 
did  not  exceed  eight  hundred.  There  never  had  been  the  slightest 
disturbance  between  them.  The  Chinese  were  hard  workers,  who 
medilled  with  nobody.  The  Spaniards  rode  al)out  on  horseback,  en- 
joying the  fruits  of  the  Chinamen's  labour  and  living  like  lords;  and 
yet  they  were  not  satisfied.  They  wanted  to  rob  the  Chinamen  of  the- 
gold  and  silver  which  they  had  managed  to  save  under  the  hard  con- 
ditions of  their  life.  The  Spaniards  met  together  in  secret,  plannedi 
a  massacre  of  the  Chinese,  and  carried  out  this  atrocious  design  withi 
such  expedition,  that,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  but  few  of  the 
twenty  thousand  victims  were  left  alive.  The  marauders  then  divided 
the  spoils  they  had  gained,  and  rejoiced  in  the  name  of  civilization, 
and  religion.  Tiiirty-seven  years  later,  a  new  generation  of  China- 
men having  arisen,  who  w^ere  ignorant  or  careless  of  what  had  oc- 
curred before,  some  thirty-three  thousand  of  my  countrymen  grad- 
ually found  their  way  to  Manila.  Precisely  the  same  thing  hapjiened 
as  before.  The  Spaniards,  coveting  the  gains  of  the  Chinese,  planned 
their  massacre,  and  slaughtered  twenty-two  thousand  of  them  in  four 
months,  with  a  loss  on  their  own  side  of  but  three  hundred  and  thirty. 
(Martin's  History  of  China,  i,  378.)  From  that  moment  the  Philip- 
pines decayed  and  sunk  to  nothing.  In  1762,  when  Sir  William  Draper 
captured  Slanila  from  Spain,  his  most  numerous  and  eager  allies  were 
the  Chinese.  It  was  a  punishment  and  retrilnition  to  the  Spaniards.'* 
—  i'he  "  Letters  "  of  Quang  Chang  Ling,  1878. 

'596.  Queen  Elizabeth  despatches  a  fleet  to  China,  with  instruc- 
tions to  obtain  a  footing  in  that  country  by  treaty  if  possible,  by  force 
if  necessary.  The  vessels  are  wrecked  on  their  way  to  the  Orient,  and 
the  design  is  temporarily  abantloned. 

1680.  The  East  India  Company  open  a  factory  at  Canton  and  in- 
troduce the  sale  of  Indian  opium  in  China.  The  develoi)ment  of  this 
trafific  leads  to  fretjuent  conflicts  between  the  traders  and  the  officers 
of  the  imperial  government,  who  liave  instructions  to  restrict  or  stop 
it.  These  conflicts  lead  to  threatening  expeditions  on  the  part  of  the 
English,  in  each  of  which  some  Chinese  coast  towns  or  forts  are  de- 
stroved,  and  some  inilemnity  demanded,  by  special  embassy.  Such 
were  the  objects  of  Lord  Macartney,  1793,  and  Lord  .Vmherst,  1816. 

1S2S.  The  imperial  laws  against  the  use  of  opium  exasperated  the 
British,  who  sent  fleets  to  Canton  in  1831  and  1834.     Although  they 


35©  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

failed  to  intimidate  the  government,  they  fostered  and  protected  a 
contraband  trade  of  opium  in  armed  ships.  In  1838  the  Chinese 
government,  desiring  to  destroy  a  traffic  which  corrupted  the  morals 
and  promoted  the  degeneracy  of  its  people,  made  the  use  of  opium  a 
capital  crime,  and  destroyed  the  British  stock  of  opium  at  Canton, 
worth  twenty  million  dollars  (March,  1839).  On  June  28, 1840,  the  Brit- 
ish fleet,  under  Admiral  Elliott,  occupied  Chusan,  destroyed  the  for- 
tifications of  Amoy,  and  in  1841  the  forts  at  Boca  Tigris,  which  de- 
fended Canton.  This  city,  together  with  Chusan,  Amoy,  Ningpo, 
Cha-pu,  and  Shanghai,  were  successively  bombarded,  occupied  and 
plundered,  when  a  peace  was  patched  up  by  a  concession  of  the  Island 
of  Hong  Kong  and  the  payment  of  $6,000,000  indemnity  to  the 
British,  May  27,  1841.  In  the  same  year  Chin-pae,  Yuyao,  Tsikee, 
Funghwa,  Cha-pu,  Woosung,  Chin-keang-foo,  and  many  other  towns, 
are  captured  and  plundered  by  the  British,  who  now  raised  their  de- 
mands for  indemnity  to  $21,000,000.  This  sum  was  conceded  by  the 
treaty  of  August  29,  1842,  and  Chusan  given  as  security. 

The  inferiority  of  the  Chinese  arms  in  these  attacks  led  to  disgust 
of  their  Mantchu  rulers  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese,  and  to  internal 
commotions,  which  developed  into  the  Taiping  Rebellion  of  1850. 
This,  being  aided  by  the  foreigners,  secured  them  a  further  footing 
in  China.  Foreign  adventurers  enlisted  in  the  ranks  of  the  rebels, 
and  foreign  ministers  entered  into  negotiations  with  them.  The  rebels 
plundered  Han- Yang,  Kan-Keu,  Nanking,  Chin-Kiang,  Kua-chow, 
Yan-chovv,  Tung-yang,  and  many  other  places,  while  the  foreigners 
alternately  aided  one  side  or  the  other,  apparently  with  the  view  to 
prolong  the  rebellion  and  weaken  the  government.  The  rebellion 
was  no  sooner  crushed  by  the  imperial  government  than  a  new  pre- 
text was  found  for  war  and  plunder. 

In  1-856  the  Chinese  authorities  at  Canton  seized  the  Chinese  crew 
of  a  Chinese  smuggler  sailing  under  the  British  flag.  This  being  re- 
garded as  an  insult  to  Great  Britain,  was  resented  by  the  bombard- 
ment of  Canton,  the  French  fleet,  recently  released  from  operations 
in  the  Black  Sea,  by  the  conclusion  of  the  Crimean  war,  taking  part 
with  the  British.  The  American  frigate  Portsmouth  also  took  a  hand 
in  this  cowardly  attack,  though  the  act  was  not  approved  by  the 
American  government.  On  January  i,  1858,  Canton  was  taken  by 
the  British  and  French  forces,  who  committed  many  wanton  cruelties 
and  plundered  the  city  right  and  left.  In  May,  the  forts  of  the  Pei-ho 
were  destroyed,  and.Tsin-tsin  threatened,  when  the  Chinese  govern- 
ment procured  peace  by  the  payment  of  $22,000,000  to  the  allies 
(16  to  England  and  6  to  France),  the  surrender  of  the  left  bank  of 
the  Amur  river  to  Russia,  and  numerous  concessions  to  the  other 
Christian  nations  who  were  the  unmoved  spectators  of  these  acts  of 
brigandage. 

In  dealing  with  Chinese  affairs,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  ever 
since  1728  there  has  been  maintained  at  Pekin  a  convent  or  college 
for  educating  Russians  in  the  Chinese  language,  who  go  there  and 
leave  the  place  by  rotation  when  instructed.    Russia  also  enjoys  an 


PLUNDER    OF    CHINA.  351 

immense  moral  advantage  over  Great  Britain  in  the  circumstance  of 
her  abstention  from  the  degrading  and  destructive  opium  trade. 
When  the  events  of  1842  blocked  the  liritisli  opium  trade  at  Canton, 
they  tried  to  force  the  deadly  drug  into  China  by  way  of  Smyrna, 
Moscow  and  Kiakchta;  but  the  Russians  stopped  it  by  imposing  a 
prohibitive  duty  of  40  silver  roubles  per  pood,  eciual  to  3s.  6d.  per 
pound  English.     Macgregor,  11,  621,  644. 

In  1899  Baron  Ketteler,  of  the  German  legation  at  Pekin  was 
killed  by  a  Chinese  fanatic.  This  incident,  and  the  pretence  of  pro- 
tecting their  own  legations,  was  made  the  occasion  of  an  attack  upon 
China  by  the  combined  forces  of  Germany,  Great  Britain,  France, 
Austria,  Italy,  the  United  States,  Russia,  and  Japan,  in  which  up- 
wards of  one  hundred  Chinese  cities  were  captured  and  plundered, 
upwards  of  50,000  innocent  people  destroyed,  and  450  million  taels 
demanded  as  indemnity  by  the  destroyers;  the  Chinese  armies  and 
fleet  being  the  cowed  and  silent  spectators  of  this  ruin,  wholly  un- 
prepared to  prevent,  modify,  or  resent  it.  The  German  Emperor's 
command  to  his  forces  were  to  "Kill  all;  spare  none  I"  and  this 
Scriptural  injunction  appears  to  have  been  implicitly  followed  by  all 
of  the  allies,  with,  perhaps,  the  exception  of  Japan  and  the  United 
States,  both  of  which  powers  limited  themselves  chiefly  to  plunder 
and  "  indemnity." 

July  19,  1900.  Brig.-Gen.  Heywood,  of  the  U.  S.  INIarine  Corps, 
on  October,  29,  1900,  quotes  the  report  of  Col.  Meade,  dated  July 
19,  which  states  that  the  Treasury  of  Tien-Tsin  had  been  looted,  and 
that  Major  Waller,  searching  for  further  treasures,  recovered  $376,- 
300  from  the  ruins  of  the  Salt  Company's  Yamen.  This  plunder  was 
sold  for  drafts  on  J.  P.  Morgan  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  and  the  latter 
were  forwarded  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

Aug.  1 8.  The  London  Times  says  that  Pekin  is  being  systemat- 
ically looted.  The  French  and  Russians  are  searching  for  the  Im- 
perial treasure. 

Aug.  24.  The  Elberfeld  Journal  publishes  a  letter  from  one  of 
the  German  soldiers  at  Tien-Tsin,  which  states  that  the  German 
troops  killed  only  the  Chinese  prisoners;  while  the  Russians  killed 
everybody,  men,  women  and  children.  The  Crefeld  Zeitung  has  a 
letter  saying  that  the  Russians  and  Japanese  spared  none.  Leslie's 
Weekly  says  that  every  city  from  Taku  to  Pekin  was  looted.  The 
allies  took  the  silver,  jade,  silks  and  furs,  everything  of  value.  Tlie 
English  gathered  the  furs,  ornaments  and  furniture  from  every  house 
in  their  quarter  and  sold  them  at  auction.  The  Japanese  devoted 
their  energies  to  gold, silver,and  munitions  of  war,  which  they  ship|K'd 
to  Japan.  Every  Russian  helped  himself.  Much  loot  was  shipped 
to  Shanghai  and  the  Piiilippines  and  there  sold  at  auction.  The 
French  took  all  they  could  find.  The  Germans  came  late,  so  they 
organized  "punitive  expeditions."  A  Pekin  despatch  says  that  the 
Chinese  women,  to  escape  the  nameless  bestiality  of  the  Russians, 
drowned  themselves  by  tens  of  thousands.  The  scenes  of  wanton 
carnage,  outrage  and  spoliation,  defy  description.    The  women,  owing 


352  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

to  their  feet  being  cramped  by  bandages  and  tight  shoes — and  this 
bespeaks  women  of  the  higher  classes — could  not  escape  from  the 
brutal  ruffians  who  pursued  them  ;  and  thousands  of  them  committed 
suicide.  The  poor  innocent  children  were  slain  without  mercy.  Gold, 
silver  and  lust  were  not  the  only  incentives.  Wanton  murder  was 
added  to  the  other  horrors  of  war  upon  a  defenceless  people,  against 
whom  war  had  never  been  declared. 

Sept.  I.  Joaquin  Miller,  in  the  Chicago  American,  tells  of  horrible 
scenes  witnessed  by  him  in  China.  At  Tong-Ku,  which  the  Russians 
burned,  they  beat  out  the  brains  of  a  fleeing  Chinaman.  They  looted 
the  place  and  massacred  women  and  children.  The  people,  robbed 
of  their  food,  were  reduced  to  cannibalism.  Many  women  and  chil- 
dren drowned  themselves  to  escape  the  Russians.  He  estimates  that 
from  10,000  to  50,000  bodies  of  dead  Chinese  floated  down  the  Peiho- 
river. 

Pekin,  Sept.  i.  A  private  letter  from  Pekin  says  that  a  German 
cavalry  officer,  having  translated  the  United  States  Mint  Reports, 
which  estimate  that  there  are  seven  hundred  million  dollars  of  silver 
in  China,  his  countrymen  are  resolved  to  capture  the  treasure  if  they 
-have  to  tear  out  the  hearts  of  the  Chinese  to  get  at  it.  Upon  being 
told  that  the  estimate  was  the  wild  conjecture  of  an  ignorant  official, 
and  that  almost  the  only  money  of  China  was  copper  "  cash,"  he  re- 
plied that  the  Germans  intended  to  find  that  out  for  themselves. 
I  fear  that  our  preposterous  Mint  estimates  will  cost  many  thousand 
innocent  lives. 

Sept.  6.  The  London  Globe,  of  Nov.  13,  publishes  a  letter  from 
a  Belgian  gentleman  who  travelled  to  Pekin  via  the  Trans-Siberian 
Railroad.  He  describes,  under  date  of  Sept.  6,  what  he  saw  in  the 
Amur  River.  His  account  surpasses  in  horror  those  previously  pub- 
lished. 

"The  scenes  I  have  witnessed  during  the  three  days  since  the 
steamer  left  Blagovetchensk,"  he  says,  "are  horrible  beyond  the 
powers  of  description.  It  is  the  closing  tableau  of  a  fearful  human 
tragedy.  Two  thousand  were  deliberately  drowned  at  Moro,  2,000 
at  Rabe,  and  8, 000  around  Blagovetchensk,  a  total  of  1 2, 000  corpses 
encumbering  the  river,  among  which  were  thousands  of  women  and 
children.     Navigation  was  all  but  impossible." 

Pekin,  Sept.  25.  This  Chinese  expedition  is  the  biggest  looting 
affair  since  the  days  of  Pizarro.  Men's  fur  coats,  women's  jewels  and 
hair-pins,  and  children's  baubles,  are  auctioned  off  every  day.  Sun- 
days excepted, in  front  of  the  British  legation.  Sir  Claude  MacDonald 
is  frequently  in  the  crowd.  Royal  Marines  and  engineers,  Welsh 
Fusileers,  Americans,  Germans,  Sikhs;  in  short,  everybody  except 
the  Russians  and  French  enjoy  the  sport.  The  wealthy  houses  and 
pawn-shops  were  first  gutted.  Many  thousands  of  houses,  after  being 
plundered,  were  wantonly  destroyed,  the  occupants  killed  or  beaten, 
the  women  grossly  treated,  mules  and  other  animals  bayoneted  or 
shot.  Even  the  civilians  who  accompanied  the  army  took  part  in 
the  plunder. — Dispatch  to  the  London  Express. 


PLUNDER    OK    CHINA.  353 

Berlin,  Nov.  13.  A  new  batch  of  letters  from  soldiers  in  China 
give  horrible  details  of  the  wholesale  murders  of  Chinese  at  Liang- 
Sian  and  Ta-King,  which  have  been  su|)pressed  by  the  newspapers. 

November.  15.  Dr.  Morrison,  the  Pekin  correspondent  of  the  Lon- 
don limes,  considers  that  the  jjliinder  of  the  Chinese  tombs  was  a 
just  punishment  for  the  murder  of  the  missionaries. 

December  i.  The  Kobi  (Japan)  Chronicle  reports  the  silver  plun- 
dered from  Pekin  by  the  Japanese  troops  at  2,637,700  taels,  valued 
at  $1,895,500. 

December  5.  In  the  Kalgan  expedition,  the  German  cavalry  ex- 
acted tolls  of  skins  and  silver.  At  Swen-hwa-Foo  they  overtook  the 
fugitive  Chinese,  killed  thirty  of  them,  and  bagged  twenty  thousand 
taels  of  silver.  This  is  but  a  small  part  of  their  doings.  The  Pall 
Mall  Gazette  regards  the  plundering  expedition  t(j  Kalgan,  and  the 
looting  and  burning  of  Chinese  villages,  as  barbarism  and  brigandage. 

December  7.  The  London  Morning  Post  reports  that  the  Ger- 
mans at  Cho-Chow  plundered  the  christian  converts  equally  with  the 
other  Chinese. 

December  12.  A  confession  extorted  from  a  former  Court  official 
has  induced  Col.  Tullock.  commander  of  the  British  forces,  to  dig  for 
a  large  amount  of  gold  and  other  valuables  said  to  have  been  buried 
bv  the  Chinese  Emperor  at  a  spot  some  twenty  miles  northwest  of 
Pekin. 

Dec.  21,  The  Pekin  correspondent  of  the  London  Morning  Post 
reports  that  Count  Von  Waldersee's  command  are  engaged  in  loot- 
ing. At  Lung  Ching,  the  Germans  shot  sixty  Imperial  troops  who 
were  engaged  in  supressing  Boxers,  killed  thirty  other  Chinese,  in- 
cluding three  christians,  and  took  two  hundred  prisoners,  including 
thirty  christians,  whom  they  ransomed  for  twenty  thousand  taels  of 
silver.  A  Renter  telegram  from  Pekin  says  that  blackmail  is  levied 
upon  the  people  by  the  native  employes  of  the  allies.  Murder,  pil- 
lage and  burning  are  going  on  in  Pe-chi-Li  and  Shan-Tung.  We  are 
making  preparations  to  celebrate  Christmas. 

December  26.  Mr.  H.  J.  Whigham,  correspondent  of  the  London 
Morning  Post,  reports  that  the  Germans,  not  content  with  looting 
Pekin,  rob  the  poor  peasants  who  bring  their  produce  to  the  Pekin 
market.  The  result  is  that  only  the  markets  controlled  by  British, 
American  and  Japanese  troops,  are  freely  supplied. 

Dec.  26.  The  St.  Petersburg  correspondent  of  the  London  Times 
reports  that  Vice-.\dmiral  Alexieff  has  issued  orders  to  his  command 
to  prepare  full  lists  of  the  gold  and  silver,  cattle  and  j)rovisions,  seized 
in  China. 

London,  Jan.  4,  1901.  The  Daily  Mail  publishes  a  severe  arraign- 
ment from  Mr.  WiUard,  a  correspondent  in  Pekin.  of  the  European 
and  American  missionaries  in  China.  He  accuses  them  of  urging  the 
military  to  send  expeditions  to  different  points  of  the  country,  osten- 
sibly to  protect  native  converts,  but  really  to  get  an  opportunity  for 
wholesale  looting. 

Mr.  Willard  declares  that  the  missionaries  have  had  their  share  in 


354  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

all  the  phases  of  loot,  and  gives  the  evidence  of  American  officers, 
whose  names  he  withholds,  in  support  of  his  charges,  the  whole  going 
to  show  that  in  several  cases  American  officers  declined  to  sanction 
the  urgings  of  the  missionaries.  In  one  case  the  "  rebels,"  whom  the 
missionaries  called  upon  them  to  shoot,  turned  out  to  be  a  parcel  of 
Chinese  school  boys  brandishing  sticks.  The  soldiers  said  it  would 
be  sheer  murder  to  fire  at  them,  so  they  fired  over  their  heads  and 
the  boys  ran  away. 

Jan.  13.  M.  de  Witte,  the  Russian  Minister  of  Finance,  says  in  his 
annual  budget,  that:  "Russia  has  accomplished  all  that  it  was  her 
duty  as  a  christian  power  to  do  in  China." 

Jan.  26.  The  Europeans,  under  the  command  of  Field  Marshal 
the  Count  Von  \\'aldersee,  in  their  various  unprovoked  and  unpun- 
ished acts  of  murder,  arson,  robbery,  and  rape,  do  not  shine  by 
contrast  with  the  Boxers.  It  is  rather  the  Boxers  who  shine  by  con- 
trast with  them.  .  .  .  All  the  accounts  that  have  reached  us  have 
represented  the  missionaries  as  having  been  as  active  in  the  looting 
of  Chinese  property  as  they  had  been  in  instigating  the  promiscuous 
taking  of  Chinese  lives. — New  York  Times,  editorial. 

Jan.,  1901.  In  the  Contemporary  Review  for  this  month,  under  the 
title  of  The  Chinese  Wolf  and  the  European  Lamb,  Mr.  E.  J.  Dillon 
presents  in  harrowing  details  an  account  of  the  massacres  of  the 
Chinese  by  the  allied  European  soldiery.  "  The  doings  of  some  of 
these  apostles  of  culture,"  writes  Mr.  Dillon,  "were  so  heinous  that 
even  the  plea  of  their  having  been  perpetrated  upon  wild  savages 
would  not  rid  them  from  the  nature  of  crimes."  This  is  the  descrip- 
tion of  a  scene  at  the  bar  of  the  Taku,  toward  the  mouth  of  the  Pei-ho  : 
"Dead  bodies  of  Chinamen  were  floating  seaward,  some  with  eyes 
agape  and  aghast,  others  with  brainless  skulls  and  eyeless  sockets, 
and  nearly  all  of  them  wearing  their  blue  blouses,  baggy  trousers  and 
black,  glossy  pigtails.  Many  of  them  looked  as  if  they  were  merely 
swimming  on  their  backs.  Hovering  over  each  was  a  dense  cloud  of 
flies,  and  higher  still,  in  the  hot,  heavy  air,  unclean  birds  of  prey 
wheeling  round  and  round.  .  .  .  Fire  and  sword  had  put  their 
marks  upon  this  entire  country.  The  untrampled  corn  was  rotting 
in  the  fields,  the  pastures  were  herdless,  roofless  the  ruins  of  houses, 
the  hamlets  devoid  of  inhabitants.  In  all  the  villages  we  passed,  the 
desolation  was  the  same.  Day  after  day,  hour  after  hour,  sometimes 
minute  after  minute,  bloated  corpses,  pillowed  on  the  crass  ooze, 
drifted  down  the  current,  now  getting  entangled  in  the  ropes,  now 
caught  by  an  obstacle  near  the  shore." 

The  terrible  conditions  in  Tung-Tschau  are  thus  described :  "I 
speak  as  an  eye-witness  when  I  say,  for  example,  that  over  and  over 
and  over  again  the  gutters  of  Tung-Tschau  ran  red  with  blood, and  I 
sometimes  found  it  impossible  to  go  my  way  without  getting  my  boots 
bespattered  with  human  gore.  There  were  few  shops,  private  houses, 
and  courtyards  without  dead  bodies  and  pools  of  dark  blood.  Amid 
a  native  population  whose  very  souls  quaked  with  fear  at  sight  of  a 
rifle,  revolver,  or  military  uniform,  a  reign  of  red  terror  was  inaugu- 


PLUNDER    OK    CHINA.  355 

rated  for  which  there  seems  no  adequate  motive.  Even  it  ail  the 
Chinese  within  the  city  walls  had  risen  in  revolt  against  the  foreign- 
ers, the  latter  could  have  quelled  it  almost  without  an  effort.  .  .  . 
To  compare  nationalities  in  respect  of  the  guilt  of  their  rejiresenta- 
tives,  in  the  violation  of  Chinese  women,  would  be  at  once  misleading 
to  the  historian  anil  prejudicial  to  the  cause  of  humanity.  It  is  enough 
to  know  that  outrages  against  female  h()nt)ur  were  heinous  and  many ; 
together  with  the  taking  of  unprotected  lives  and  property,  they  were 
the  crimes  most  frequently  committed  by  the  allied  troops.  .  .  . 
China  has  never  meddled  in  European  affairs,  never  given  the  powers 
any  just  cause  of  complaint.  In  fact,  her  chief  sin  consists  in  her  ob- 
stinate refusal  to  put  herself  in  a  state  to  do  either.  She  is  not  en- 
croaching upon  the  territo'^y  of  others,  although  her  population  has 
become  too  numerous  for  her  own.  Her  only  desire  is  to  be  left,  as 
she  leaves  others,  in  jieace.  She  has  a  right  to  this  isolation.  Russia 
allows  no  foreign  missionaries  to  convert  her  people.  'I'o  induce  a 
Russian  subject  to  abandon  his  Church  for  Protestantism  or  Catholic- 
ism is  a  crime,  jiunishable  by  law.  Why  should  a  similar  act  not  be 
similarly  labeled  and  treated  in  China  ?  " 

Pekin,  Jan.  30.  In  October  last,  while  men  of  the  Fifteenth  U.  S. 
Infantry  were  on  guard  duty  along  the  river,  they  blackmailed  sev- 
eral villagers, demanding  frt)m  100  to  200  taels  protection  money,  and 
in  some  cases  their  demands  were  complied  with.  They  were  cap- 
tured by  the  French  and  turned  over  to  the  American  authorities. 
Dickson  escaped  after  the  court-martial  began,  and  is  still  at  liberty. 
Seamons  was  sentenced  to  twenty  years  imprisonment,  and  Dickson 
to  twenty-one  years. 

Berlin,  Jan.  30.  A  dispatch  to  the  Cologne  Volks  Zeitung  from 
China  relates  horrible  details  about  the  warfare  in  that  country,  and 
says:  "  We  hope  these  awful  conditions  will  soon  cease.  The  de- 
pravity and  bestiality  among  our  troops  are  enormously  on  the  in- 
crease. Large  numbers  of  old  soldiers  are  sentenced  to  long  terms 
in  the  penitentiary  and  jail  for  murder,  burglary,  and  ill-treatment  of 
women." 

March  14.  Lieut.  Chas.  Kiburn,  of  the  Fourteenth  U.S.  Infantry, 
has  arrived  at  San  Francisco  from  China,  on  sick  leave.  He  says 
that  the  reports  of  looting  in  China  are  untrue.  All  that  he  got  was 
an  embroidered  coat  belonging  to  the  Chinese  Emperor,  Kwang  Su. 

March  15.  A  large  force  of  mixed  allies,  under  no  command,  are 
plundering  every  home  between  Pekin  and  Tien-Tsin.  Having  de- 
feated a  German  squad,  a  force  of  British  cavalry  has  been  sent  to 
disperse  them. 

March  15.  Rev.  W.  S.  Ament,  a  missionary  and  member  of  the 
American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  charges  the  C.ermans  with 
plundering  the  city  of  Man-Ming,  sixty  miles  from  Pekin.  He  said 
that  they  ransacked  and  desecrated  a  C'/i ns fiii n  cha\)t:\  and  despoiled 
tiie  women  of  their  trinkets,  even  tearing  the  rings  out  of  their  ears 
and  ill-treating  them  in  other  ways.  The  Germans  replied  by  charg- 
ing the  missionaries  themselves  with  partaking  of  the  plunder. 


356  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

April  6.  The  Kobe  (Japan)  Herald  of  this  date  publishes  an  in- 
terview with  Rev.  W.  S.  Ament,  an  American  missionary  on  his  way 
home  from  Pekin.  He  admits  that  the  American  and  English  mis- 
sionaries looted  the  premises  of  Prince  Yu  and  other  Chinese  mag- 
nates and  sold  the  plunder  for  the  benefit  of  the  missions,  the  sale 
lasting  about  two  weeks.  After  disposing  of  all  the  loot,  and  find- 
ing that  the  demand  for  sables  and  other  valuable  things  was  undi- 
minished, they  purchased  other  plundered  articles  from  the  Russian 
and  East  Indian  soldiers  and  sold  these  at  a  profit.  Some  of  these 
furs  were  worth  $600  cash. 

April  13.  Germany,  which  had  fewer  troops  in  China  before  Pekin 
fell  than  any  other  great  power,  has  presented  a  bill  which  has  not 
been  definitely  stated,  but  which  is  understood  to  amount  to  not  less 
than  $80,000,000,  or  more  than  the  amount  claimed  by  Great  Britain, 
Japan,  and  the  United  States  together.  The  reason  of  this  is  that 
after  the  fighting  was  all  over  Germany  poured  into  China  thousands 
of  troops  who  have  been  there  ever  since,  and  she  is  now  saddling 
the  expense  of  their  keep  on  China.  The  Chinese  indemnities  for 
war  expenses,  exclusive  of  the  claims  of  private  individuals  and  mis- 
sions, have  been  thus  far  fixed  as  follows : 

Russia,  $90,000,000;  France,  $65,000,000;  Germany, $80, 000, 000; 
Great  Britain,  $22,500,000;  United  States,  $20,000,000 ;  Japan, $25,- 
000,000.  France  Xvill  also  present  claims  on  behalf  of  Italy.  The 
indemnity  is  ten  times  the  amount  paid  to  Japan  at  the  close  of  the 
Chinese-Japanese  war,  which  was  $37,000,000. 

April  14.  Dr.  L.  L.  Seaman,  surgeon  of  the  Seventeenth  U.  S.  In- 
fantry in  China,  returned  to  the  United  States  and  reported  that 
Gen.  Chaffee  was  careful  to  prevent  his  soldiers  "from  taking  part 
in  the  looting  that  has  been  going  on  at  such  a  fearful  rate  in  China. " 

"It  is  an  outrage  upon  humanity  and  upon  civilization  that  the 
Chinese  have  been  treated  as  they  have  by  the  foreign  troops  who 
have  gone  there  since  Pekin  fell.  China  has  suffered  a  thousand 
times  more  than  she  ever  deserved.  Her  homes,  her  cities,  her  sacred 
■places  have  been  looted  and  devastated,  her  women  have  been  out- 
raged, and  her  defenceless  citizens  have  been  murdered. 

"  The  German  troops  have  for  months  been  engaged  in  what  they 
term  punitive  expeditions.  Money  is  demanded  of  villages,  and  pro- 
ceedings go  on  which  are  not  warranted.  The  war  has  been  pro- 
longed months  beyond  what  it  ever  should  have  been.  When  Pekin 
fell  the  spirit  of  China  drooped.  The  war  was  over.  Peace  could 
have  been  made  then  and  there.  The  moral  effect  of  the  war  on  China 
has  been  rendered  nil  by  the  conduct  of  the  allies  since  Pekin  was 
taken.  By  this  conduct  the  Chinese  hatred  of  the  foreigner  will  be  very 
justly  intensified,  and  the  Chinaman  now  hates  the  foreigner  a  thou- 
sand times  more  than  he  did  when  the  Boxer  troubles  began. 

"  The  Germans  have  now  recaptured  a  large  quantity  of  the  best 
guns  they  had  sold  to  China  but  a  short  time  before.  These  have 
been  sent  down  to  Kiau-Chau,  which  is  the  centre  of  the  German  sphere 
of  influence. 


PLUNDER    OK    CHINA.  357 

"It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  nearly  all  the  pillaging  that  is 
being  done  is  in  territory  which  formerly  gave  its  trade  to  the  United 
States.  All  American  trade  with  China  is  being  interfered  with. 
Whole  sections  of  country  are  been  devastated. 

"  I  witnessed  the  execution  of  one  of  the  leading  men  of  China  in 
Pekin  on  February  26.  He  was  one  of  two  whose  heads  the  allies 
had  demanded.  Not  even  the  famous  speech  of  Nathan  Hale,  'I  re- 
gret that  1  have  but  one  life  to  give  up  for  my  country,'  was  finer 
than  the  patriotic  utterance  of  old  Hsi-Chang  Vu  just  before  his 
decapitation  on  that  day.  He  was  President  of  the  Board  of  Par- 
dons in  Pekin,  a  most  important  position,  and  was  of  noble  birth,  his 
family  having  been  of  the  ruling  class  since  the  Ming  Dynastv.  Just 
before  he  was  led  to  the  block  he  was  brought,  arrayed  in  the  magnifi- 
cent sable  and  silk  robes  of  his  rank, before  the  members  of  the  Board 
for  identification.     He  said  to  them: 

"  'I  know  there  have  been  mistakes  made  in  China  for  which  I 
have  been  in  part  responsible,  but  if  my  death  will,  bring  peace  and 
prosperity  to  my  country,  I  cheerfully  surrender  my  life.' 

"At  the  command  of  Gen.  Grodekow,  now  Governor-General  of 
Manchuria,  between  12,000  and  13,000  men,  women  and  children, 
unarmed  and  defenceless,  were  driven  into  tiie  Amur  river  at  Blagovet- 
chensk  because  an  attack  had  been  made  on  the  Manchurian  railway, 
further  up  the  river.  Homes  were  ferreted  out,  and  the  old  and  de- 
crepit were  driven  with  the  women,  and  children  to  their  death — all 
to  strike  terror  to  the  heart  of  the  Chinese.  One  of  the  officers  in 
command  of  the  troops  which  executed  that  order  is  a  friend  of  mine, 
and  he  told  me  that  his  heart  grew  sick  as  he  assisted  in  carrying  out 
this  command. 

"The  only  Chinese  to  escape  from  that  terrible  massacre  were 
sixteen  employes  of  the  firm  of  Kunst  dv  Albers.  This  firm  jiro- 
tested  strongly  against  the  murder  of  their  shroft's,  compradores.  and 
clerks.  'Well,'  said  Grodekow,  'if  you  don't  like  ii  give  me  40,000 
rubles.'  And  this  amount  was  paid,  then  and  there,  to  save  the  lives 
of  their  men. 

"  In  one  of  my  talks  with  Li  Hung  Chang  we  were  discussing  this 
subject  of  the  treatment  of  the  Chinese  by  the  foreigner.  I  said  to 
him:  *  I  hope,  your  Excellency,  that  someday  China  will  adopt  some 
of  the  methods  of  \Vestern  civilization,  so  that  the  time  may  come 
when  she  can  regain  her  ancient  possessions,  that  she  may  come  to 
be  so  powerful  and  so  capable  of  caring  for  herself  that  every  person 
who  shall  reside  within  her  borders  shall  be  there  onlv  by  the  cour- 
tesy and  right  of  international  law.  I  hope  she  may  rise,  jihocnix-like, 
and  reassert  her  proud  position  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  and 
the  world  looks  to  you,  your  Excellency,  to  begin  this  rejuvenation 
of  your  venerable  empire.* 

"  'Ah,'  responded  the  old  man,  pathetically, '  the  bird  is  very  weak, 
and  is  not  able  again  to  spreail  her  wings.  Like  me,  she, too,  is  old.'" 

April.  24.  United  States  Minister  Conger,  returning  from  China, 
reports  that  the  missionaries  did  not  join  the  Germans  in  launder- 


358  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

ing  the  Chinese;  they  only  "appropriated  their  property  for  justifi- 
able ends."  Dr.  Anient  only  received  $75  from  the  British  Loot 
Committee.  "  Previous  to  this,  a  sale  of  garments  and  curios  was 
held,  and  the  $400  netted  was  given  to  the  American  Board  of  For- 
eign Missions,"  with  which  Dr.  Ament  is  connected.  Dr.  Anient  ex- 
plained that  from  the  sale  of  goods  plundered  from  the  Mongol 
Prince's  house  only  ^4,000  was  realized,  and  this  was  devoted  to  the 
needs  of  the  native  Christians.  These  possibly  included  spiritual 
needs.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  amount  of  plunder  admitted  to 
have  been  acquired  by  the  American  Board  of  Missions  increased 
gradually  from  $75  to  $4,000.  No  doubt  it  can  be  proved  to  have 
been  all  "justifiable." 

Pekin,  April  25.  Very  serious  famine  spreads  over  the  whole  prov- 
ince of  Shan-Si.  Over  11,000,000  population  affected.  Urgent  relief 
necessary.   Conditions  warrant  immediate  appeal. — Li  Hung  Chang. 

To  this  piteous  appeal  Christianity  has  made  no  response. 

May  I.  "The  Russian  troops  were  soldiers  of  fortune  from  the 
borderland  of  civilization;  they  were  fighters,  murderers  and  plunder- 
ers by  nature  and  profession.  .  .  .  The  French  were  a  lazy,  cruel 
and  plundering  lot.  Their  actions  in  China  disgraced  the  name  of 
France.  .  .  .  The  German  campaign  of  vengeance  is  absolutely 
inexcusable.  .  .  .  British  (chiefly  Indian  troops)  looted  systema- 
tically. They  sold  their  loot  to  the  highest  bidder,  and  distributed 
the  money  among  their  officers  and  privates.  The  auction  of  loot 
occurred  daily  in  the  British  legation.  The  Japanese  took  silver  from 
the  public  yamens,  and  sent  to  Japan  shiploads  of  rifles  and  ammu- 
nition from  the  arsenals.  If  the  veneer  of  civilization  gave  way  where 
it  was  thinnest,  and  brutal  vengeance  inspired  men's  hearts,  human  na- 
ture must  be  held  partially  responsible." — Ex-U.  S.  Vice-Consul 
General  at  Hong  Kong,  Edwin  Wildman,  in  Munsey's  for  May,  1901. 

London,  May  i.  Dispatches  from  Pekin  report  that  the  German 
expedition  throngh  Shan-Si  to  the  Ku-Kwan  Pass  is  returning,  after 
having  plundered  the  country  and  having  inflicted  terrible  bloodshed. 
The  expedition  had  produced  a  very  bad  effect.  Details  are  not  per- 
mitted. Every  man  is  laden  with  plunder.  The  gold  and  silver  alone 
will  amount  to  millions.     Famine  prevails  in  Shan-Si. 

May  6.  The  New  York  Sun  publishes  from  Dr.  Tewksbury  the 
conditions  of  the  fines  levied  upon  Chinese  villages  by  the  mission- 
aries backed  by  the  military.  These  are  one-and-a-third  times  the 
value  of  all  property  destroyed  by  the  Boxers,  the  proceeds  first  to 
satisfy  Christain  claimants;  "any  balance  after  claims  are  paid  to  be 
used  as  designated  by  the  Church."  All  villages  where  disturbances 
had  occurred  shall  devote  to  the  Church  suitable  lands  whereon  to 
erect  chapels. 

Pekin,  May  8.  The  foreign  Ministers  to-day  decided  to  address  a 
collective  note  to  the  Chinese  government,  informing  it  that  a  joint 
indemnity  of  450,000,000  taels  will  be  demanded,  and  asking  what 
method  of  payment  is  proposed. 


CHAPTER  XXVI  I. 

THE    SPANISH-AMKKICAN     KKVOLUTION. 

Opening  of  the  American  ports  to  private  traders — Tax  on  quicksilver — Overthrow 
of  Feudalism  in  France — Feudalism,  the  conservator  of  metallic  specie  systems — 
Modern  freedom  and  bank  notes  developed  together — The  Napoleonic  Empire  con- 
served the  legitimate  fruits  of  the  French  revolution — Bank  of  France — Development 
of  the  bank  note  system  oppottunely  made  good  the  scarcity  of  money  occasioned  by 
the  Spanish-American  revolution — French  invasion  of  Spain — The  injury  thus  indi- 
rectly caused  to  the  mines  by  the  French  revolution  was  repaired  by  the  extension  to 
which  it  gave  rise  of  the  bank  note  system — Effects  of  civil  war  on  the  mines — Deser- 
tion of  mining  towns  and  localities — Abandonment  of  local  agriculture — Neglect  and 
ruin  of  farm  buildings  and  implements — Sinking  down  of  the  mines — They  are  choked 
by  debris — Filled  with  water — Destruction  of  machinery — Mischievous  work  of  the 
bttsconts — Withdrawal  of  capital  from  the  mines — Permanent  blow  to  production — 
Immediate  effects — Produce  of  mining  reduced  nearly  one-half — Diminution  of  the 
world's  stock  of  precious  metals — Development  of  the  bank  note  system — Beginning 
of  free  mining  due  to  Spanish-American  revolution. 

IN  1778  SenorGalvez,  the  Ministerof  the  Indies  (America), declared 
thirteen  of  the  American  ports  open  to  private  traders  carry- 
ing the  Spanish  flag,  a  measure  that  swelled  the  exports  from  Spain 
five-fold,  doubled  those  from  America,  and  increased  the  import  and 
export  duties  levied  in  Spain  from  6^  million  reals  in  1778  to  55)^ 
million  reals  in  1788.  Not  only  this,  by  affording  a  ready  market 
for  American  productions,  this  measure  imparted  a  marked  stimulus 
to  the  growth  of  sugar,  tobacco  and  coffee,  and  in  promoting  agricul- 
ture and  creating  a  class  of  yoemen,  it  materially  hastened  the  Re- 
volution. Mining  and  the  produce  of  mining  may  be  taxed  so  in- 
sidiously as  to  furnish  no  pretext  for  revolution.  Very  few  people 
understand  the  intricacies  of  coinage,  seigniorage,  ratios  of  value 
between  the  precious  metals,  exchange,  arbitrage,  etc.,  while  every- 
body is  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  cultivation  of  the  earth  and  the 
bearing  of  taxes  upon  its  products.  When  Galvez's  reforms  had 
borne  due  fruit  he  attempted,  by  increasing  the  taxes,  to  augment 
the  revenues  of  the  Crown.  In  1781  this  produced  a  revolution 
in  the  vice-royalty  of  Sante  Fe,  essentially  a  gold-mining  district. 


360  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

The  same  causes  afterwards  occasioned  a  more  serious  revolt  in  Peru, 
where  it  was  only  quelled  by  the  most  sanguinary  measures. 

Meanwhile,  the  news  from  British  North  America  was  not  without 
its  due  effect.  If  the  Americans  would  only  recall  the  tyranny,  in- 
justice, and  wretchedness  from  which  their  brave  example  redeemed 
the  Roman  world,  they  would  deport  themselves  rather  as  a  nation 
of  priests  than  as  a  parcel  of  money-seekers!  An  accident  assisted 
the  yearning  of  the  Mexicans  for  liberty.  The  American  mines  an- 
nually consumed  i}{  million  pounds  weight  of  quicksilver  for  the  pur- 
poses of  amalgamation.  Of  this  amount  one  million  pounds  came 
from  Almaden,  in  La  Mancha.  In  1782  the  galleries  of  Almaden 
caved  in,  crushing  a  number  of  workmen  to  death  and  temporarily 
diminishing  the  supply  of  quicksilver.  Although,  to  make  good  the 
deficiency,  the  king  of  Spain  arranged  with  .the  emperor  of  Austria 
for  an  annual  supply  of  600,000  pounds  of  quicksilver  from  the  mines 
of  Carniola,  the  price  rose  from  $41  to  $52  per  quintal,  and  many  of 
the  mine  proprietors  of  Mexico,  wearied  with  the  exactions  of  the 
Crown,  and  irritated  by  this  additional  discouragement,  turned  their 
peons  into  the  fields  and  their  own  thoughts  to  freedom  from  the 
thraldom  of  the  Spanish  monarchy. 

These  inspirations  were  materially  assisted  by  the  overthrow  of 
the  feudal  system  in  France.  This  system  was  the  especial  conser- 
vator of  metallic  money,  and  whenever,  and  so  long  as  that  system 
lasted,  all  extensions  of  the  monetary  circulation  by  means  of  bank 
notes  or  any  substitute  for  coins  were  impracticable.  When  these  de- 
vices were  employed  by  the  Italian  republics  they  were  free  from 
Roman  control:  when  banks  of  issue  were  established  in  Catalonia, 
Sweden,  Holland,  England,  &c. ,  those  countries  had  removed  their 
feudal  yokes.  When  France  arose  in  turn  to  throw  off  this  weight, 
which  in  that  country  had  attained  uncommon  and  crushing  propor- 
tions, her  long  smothered  resentment  overleaped  its  legitimate 
bounds,  and  the  freedom  of  the  Revolution  quickly  degenerated  into 
licence  and  the  intolerable  rule  of  a  mob.  It  was  in  harmony  with 
these  social  changes  that  in  that  country  money  was  represented  by 
the  illimitable  assignat  and  mandat. ' 

'  The  assignat  was  at  first  a  communal  note,  bearing  interest  and  acceptable  for 
purchases  of  the  forfeited  lands  of  the  condemned  nobles.  It  was  decreed  legal 
tender  by  the  Republic, ^and  became  a  numerary  whose  value  was  independent  of  the 
influence  of  either  accumulations  of  interest  or  promises  of  land,  and  depended  solely 
upon  its  acceptability  for  taxes  and  the  quantity  of  notes  emitted. 

The  emissions  becoming  excessive,  and  the  notes  extensively  counterfeited,  their 
value  eventually  fell  to  a  mere  nothing. 

The  mandat,  a  subsequent  form  of  note,  was  payable  in,  and  formed  a  claim  upon, 
certain  lands  at  fixed  prices  ;  but  being  also  issued  in  excessive  numbers,  and  being 
also  widely  counterfeited,  it  fell  in  value  like  its  predecessor,  until  it  became  worthless. 


THE    SPANISH-AMtklCAN     KtVOLL'T  ION.  36 1 

The  Empire  of  Napoleon  was  at  once  a  protest  against  the  ancienne 
regime  and  against  a  premature  republic  in  France.  It  was  the  con- 
servator of  all  the  legitimate  fruits  of  the  Revolution,  and  marked 
not  only  the  termination  of  feudalism  in  France,  but  also  its  termina- 
tion throughout  Europe  generally.  For  the  suppression  of  the  feu- 
dal system  at  its  centre  did  not  fail  to  evoke  the  resistance  of  sur- 
rounding countries,  and  to  bring  about  those  wars  which  a  narrower 
view  of  events  has  attributed  too  exclusively  to  the  personal  ambi- 
tion of  Napoleon.  Wherever  the  French  arms  prevailed,  the  feudal 
system  was  swept  away  and  monetary  systems  were  changed  to  con- 
form to  the  new  order  of  affairs.^  Banks  were  chartered  in  nearly 
every  country  of  Europe,'  and  their  promissory  notes  for  the  first 
time  became  an  essential  portion  of  the  circulation.  But  for  tliis 
timely  and  general  introduction  of  an  acceptable  substitute  for  coins, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  the  calamitous  consequences  which 
would  have  followed  Napoleon's  plunder  of  continental  Europe  and 
the  stoppage  of  the  Mexican  supplies  of  silver  which  took  place  upon 
the  breaking  out  of  the  Spanish  American  revolution  in  1810.  Even 
as  it  was,  these  consequences  were  of  a  magnitude  that  seriously 
threatened  the  march  of  European  civilization.* 

The  French  Revolution  and  the  subsequent  invasion  of  Spain  by 
the  French  imperial  army,  were  the  immediate  causes  of  the  over- 
throw of  the  royal  government  in  Mexico  ;  thus  the  very  same  events 
which  led  to  the  closing  of  the  American  mines  had  provided  before- 
hand the  only  mitigation,  that  the  times  rendered  practical,  for  the 
evils  which  that  closing  was  about  to  entail  upon  the  world.  The 
French  Revolution  and  Empire  was  about  to  stop  the  supplies  of  sil- 
ver from  America;  but  it  had  already  j^rovided  a  partial  substitute 
for  it  in  the  paper-note  systems  which  it  had  rendered  possible  in 
Europe. 

The  news  of  the  invasion  of  Spain,  and  the  proclamation  of  Joseph 
Bonaparte  as  king,  was  received  with  great  indignation  by  the  Eu- 
ropean Spaniards  in  the  American  colonies,  and  regarded  with  equal 
pleasure  by  the  natives,  to  whom  it  held  out  hopes  of  liberty.  Down 
to  this  period  the  former  had  monopolized  the  public  offices  and  en- 
joyed every  privilege  in  the  colonies;  the  latter,  when  they  were  not 
held  in  actual  slavery,  had  been  treated  as  inferiors.    Education  was 

'  The  feudal  tenuresof  Germany  were  abolished  durinjj  the  French  occupation,  and 
restored  after  the  downfall  of  Napoleon.  Hod^skin's  Travels  in  North  Crcrmany,  ii. 
89.  The  author  gives  an  interesting  sketch  of  these  tenures  and  the  base  services  they 
entailed.     *  The  present  Hank  of  France  was  chartered  in  1803. 

*  J.  R.  McCulloch,  Com.  Die.  art.  "  I'recious  Metals." 


362  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

forbidden  to  them;  they  were  not  allowed  to  cultivate  flax,  hemp, 
saffron,  the  olive,  the  vine,  or  the  mulberry;  nor  to  manufacture  any 
article  which  could  be  supplied  by  the  mother  country.  For  a  long 
time  foreign  trade  had  been  prohibited  on  pain  of  death.  Taxation 
had  always  been  kept  at  a  point  which  rendered  its  consequences  a 
mere  euphemism  for  slavery  ^ ;  justice  was  corrupt,  partial,  and  venal ; 
life  itself  hung  upon  the  words  of  men,  who,  to  their  self-assumed 
title  of  Spanish  hidalgo,  could  add  none  of  the  virtues  which  that  title 
represents. 

Aware  of  the  discontent  generated  by  this  state  of  affairs,  the 
viceroy,  Don  Jose  Iturrigaray,  upon  hearing  of  the  ominous  change 
which  had  taken  place  in  Spain,  sought  to  conciliate  the  Mexicans  by 
affording  them  an  opportunity  to  take  part  in  the  administration  of 
colonial  affairs:  a  wise  and  generous  scheme  which  was  thwarted  by 
the  resident  Spaniards,  who  seized  the  viceroy  in  his  own  palace  and 
sent  him  a  prisoner  to  Spain.  This  proceeding  and  the  conduct  of 
the  new  viceroy,  Venegas — who  brought  from  Spain  ®  rewards  and 
distinctions  for  the  leaders  of  the  revolt  against  his  predecessor, 
and  who  persecuted  those  who  had  supported  the  plan  of  admitting 
Mexicans  to  the  vice-regal  council — alienated  and  incensed  the  na- 
tives. 

In  September,  1810,  a  revolt  broke  out  in  the  province  of  Guana- 
juato, headed  by  a  priest,  one  Miguel  Hidalgo,  who  possessed  con- 
siderable talent  and  had  much  influence  with  the  native  population. 
Such  was  the  practical  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  which,  after  hav- 
ing swept  through  Mexico,  eventually  liberated  every  state  of  Span- 
ish America. 

This  liberation  was,  however,  not  accomplished  for  many  years;  in 
Mexico,  for  example,  not  until  1824.  During  this  time  the  mines  of 
the  country  became  the  prey  of  neglect  and  vandalism.  Among  the 
first  consequences  of  the  civil  war  was  the  desertion  of  the  mining 
towns  and  localities;  the  inhabitants  preferring  for  greater  security 
to  live  in  the  larger  and  better  settled  towns,  and  in  districts  where 
supplies  of  food  and  other  necessaries  were  more  to  be  depended  upon. 
Ward  alludes  to  this  depopulation  of  the  mining  towns  with  reference 

*  For  government  prices  of  quicksilver,  blastinof-powder  and  other  monopolised  ad- 
juncts of  mining,  see  the  author's  "  History  of  Monetary  Systems,"  and  U.  S.  Mint 
Reports,  1868,  p.  617. 

^  The  royalists  in  Spain  had  demurred  to  the  authority  of  Joseph  Bonaparte  and 
organized  a  National  Regency.  This  was  followed  by  a  second  Regency  which  as- 
sembled in  the  Isla  de  Leon  in  September,  1810,  and  was  declared  by  the  Cortes, 
"  the  only  legitimate  source  of  power  during  the  captivity  of  the  sovereign."  "  Mex- 
ipo  in  1827,"  by  Sir  H.  G.  Ward.      London.  182S,  i,  125. 


THE    SPANISH-A.MKRICAX     KKVOI.UTION.  363 

lo  the  unreasonable  expectations  of  the  Anglo-Mexican  mining  ad- 
venturers of  1825.  He  says:  "No  allowances  were  made  for  the 
moral,  as  well  as  physical  effects  of  fourteen  years  of  civil  war:  the 
dispersion  of  the  most  valuable  portion  of  the  mining  labourers;  the 
deterioration  of  landed  property;  the  wanton  destruction  of  stock; 
and  the  difficulty  of  reorganizing  a  branch  of  industry  so  extensive  in 
all  its  ramifications  as  mining,  and  so  dependent  upon  other  branches 
not  immediately  connected  with  the  mines  themselves,  and  conse- 
quently not  under  the  control  of  their  directors.  All  this  was  to  be 
effected,  too,  in  a  country  in  many  parts  of  which  it  was  necessary  to 
create  a  population  before  a  single  step  could  be  taken  towards  repair- 
ing the  ruin  which  the  revolution  had  occasioned.  And  yet  nine- 
tenths  of  those  who  engaged  in  the  arduous  task  did  so  under  the 
conviction  that  wafer  wa.s  the  only  obstacle  which  they  had  to  over- 
come, and  that  the  possibility  of  surmounting  this  by  aid  of  English 
machinery,  was  unquestionable." 

The  desertion  of  the  mining  districts  had  been  followed  by  the 
abandonment  of  agriculture  in  their  vicinity,  the  neglect  and  ruin  of 
farm  dwellings,  and  the  destruction  of  farm  implements,  stock,  etc., 
so  that  no  present  resumption  of  mining  could  possibly  occur,  how- 
ever peaceful  a  turn  political  affairs  might  take,  or  however  well 
preserved  the  mines  might  be.  In  fact,  neither  of  these  favourable 
conditions  happened.  The  civil  war  went  on  and  the  mines  were 
abandoned  to  the  elements,  the  huscone,  and  the  bandit. 

Rock  mines  are  liable  to  sag,  cave  in  and  fill  up  with  superincum- 
bent rock  and  earth,  especially  in  countries  like  Mexico,  where  per- 
turbations of  the  earth's  crust  are  of  common  occurrence.^  Even 
without  these,  the  danger  of  caving  is  very  great,  and  it  can  only  be 
averted  by  incessant  watchfulness  and  continual  repairs  to  the 
timbers. 

At  Virginia  city,  Nevada,  a  mining  town  built  directly  upon  the 
great  Comstock  lode,  there  are  places  where,  from  the  operations  of 
the  miners  beneath,  the  surface  of  the  ground  has  sunk  many  feet, 
and  in  one  instance  an  entire  house  was  engulfed  in  the  "cave." 
In  the  galleries  of  the  lode  below,  though  these  are  sujiported  by  the 
most  massive  timbers,  the  signs  of  overwhelming  pressure,  twisting, 
distortion,  and  sagging,  meet  the  eye  on  all  sides.  The  shafts  have 
frequently  to  be  re-excavated  and  re-timbered,  and  the  lines  of  par- 
tition between  adjoining  properties  are  so  prone  to  shift,  that  they 
require  to  be  frequently  surveyed  and  re-located. 

'  In  iSSyan  earthquake  destroyed  Bapispe,  while  shortly  afterward,  July  18S7,  another 
one  nearly  destroyed  Bacariac,  a  village  of  1,21)0  inhabitants,  some  20  miles  distant. 


364  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

All  these  circumstances  occurred  in  the  silver  mines  of  Mexico. 
The  galleries  not  only  became  distorted  from  the  perturbations  of  the 
earth  and  the  pressure  of  the  incumbent  masses  of  rock,  the  timbers 
rotted  and  the  galleries  caved  in  and  became  choked  with  debris. 
Being  now  entirely  neglected,  many  of  them  became  filled  with  water, 
and,  except  in  some  instances  where  the  excavations  had  been  tapped 
by  adits  or  tunnels  at  low  levels,  so  as  to  afford  drainage  for  the  water, 
the  mines  were  rendered  entirely  unapproachable  and  unworkable.* 

Coincident  with  these  processes  of  destruction  and  decay  occurred 
the  rotting,  rusting,  and  plunder  of  machinery.  According  to  Ward, 
this  was  all  destroyed  during  the  war,  and  "it  became  necessary  to 
erect  anew  horse-whims  [malacates),  magazines,  stamps,  crushing- 
mills  [arasfras),  and  washing-vats;  to  purchase  hundreds  of  horses  for 
the  drainage  (of  each  mine)  and  mules  for  the  conveyance  of  the  ore 
from  the  the  mine  to  the  haciendas,  where  the  process  of  reduction 
was  carried  on;  to  make  roads  in  order  to  facilitate  the  communica- 
tion between  them;  to  wall  in  the  patios  or  courts  in  which  amalga- 
mation was  at  last  effected;  and  to  construct  water-wheels,  wherever 
water-power  could  be  applied. 

However,  all  the  mines  were  not  abandoned  during  the  civil  war. 
A  few  of  them  in  favourable  locations  were  not  disturbed  at  all,  and 
were  worked  as  usual;  others  were  worked  by  the  peasants,  who 
crept  into  the  deserted  galleries  and  gleaned  from  their  more  acces- 
sible levels  such  remains  of  ores  as  the  proprietors  had  not  deemed 
it  worth  while  to  remove,  or  such  as  had  served  as  pillars  to  support 
the  excavations.  These  peasants  were  called  bi/scoiies,  i.e.,  searchers 
or  gleaners.  The  mines  also  became  the  hiding-place  and  refuge  for 
tramps  and  bandits,  who,  in  common  with  the  biiscones,  played  such 
havoc  with  the  works  as  to  still  further  unfit  them  for  a  return  to 
systematic  mining.' 

But  perhaps  the  most  serious,  because  the  most  permanent,  source 
of  misfortune  to  the  mining  industry  of  Mexico,  was  the  removal  of 
the  large  capitals  which  had  formerly  been  invested  in  its  prosecu- 
tion. Some  classes  of  theorists  and  politicians  have  supposed  that 
capital  has  but  little  to  do  with  the  progress  of  mining;  but  practical 
men,  and  others,  familiar  with  the  requirements  of  mining  countries, 

^  "In  other  mining  districts  water  was  allowed  to  accumulate  to  an  immense  ex- 
tent in  consequence  of  the  suspension  of  the  usual  labours."    Ward,  11,  56,  119. 

®  In  alluding  to  the  depredations  committed  by  the  bttscones.  Ward  says  they  were 
still  at  work  in  many  mining  districts  of  Mexico  when  he  visited  them  in  1S27,  and 
that  he  could  not  help  believing  that  they  managed  during  the  civil  war  to  produce  as 
much  as  $5,000,000  a  year,  in  addition  to  the  $6,000,000  obtained  from  regular  min- 
ing.    Ward's  "  Mexico,"  11,  21,  23,  24. 


THE    SPANISH-AMKRICAN     RKV'OLUTION.  365 

have  abundant  reason  to  believe  otherwise.  For  example,  there  are 
numerous  mines  throughout  the  world  to-day  which  are  not  paying 
dividends;  yet,  through  the  power  of  capital,  the  workings  continue 
and  thousands  of  miners  are  employed,  with  the  hope  that  before 
long  some  new  ore  body  will  be  found  to  cover  the  hazardous  out- 
lay, and  reward  the  adventurers."  If  this  capital  were  withdrawn  the 
mines  would  have  to  be  abandoned;  for  the  fruit  of  the  present  out- 
lay may  not  appear,  if  at  all,  for  months  or  years,  and  the  unaided 
miner  could  not  afford  to  wait  for  it.  The  withdrawal  of  capital  from 
the  Me.vican  mines  is  freijuently  alluded  to  by  Ward  as  the  principal 
cause  of  their  abandonment  and  destruction.  "  This  was  the  real  evil 
of  the  Revolution.  It  was  not  the  destruction  of  the  viateriel  oi  the 
mines,  however  severe  the  loss,  that  could  have  prevented  them  from 
recovering  the  shock,  so  soon  as  the  first  fury  of  the  civil  war  had 
subsided;  but  the  want  of  confidence,  and  the  constant  risk  to  which 
capitals  were  exposed,  which,  from  being  in  so  very  tangible  a  shape, 
were  peculiarly  objects  of  attraction  to  all  parties,  led  to  the  gradual 
dissolution  of  a  system  which  it  had  required  three  centuries  to  bring 
to  the  state  of  perfection  in  which  it  existed  at  the  commencement 
of  the  War  of  Independence."" 

The  accounts  of  the  mineral  riches  of  Mexico  given  by  Baron  von 
Humboldt  in  his  celebrated  Essay  on  New  Spain,  so  excited  the  en- 
terprise of  British  capitalists  that  after  the  close  of  the  civil  war  a 
vast  capital  was  invested  in  the  mines, '^  and  half  the  population  of 
Cornwall  "  was  sent  to  reopen  them;  yet  the  previous  destruction 
had  been  so  great  that  several  years  after  these  new  aids  had  begun 
to  be  applied.  Ward,  who  was  a  careful  observer,  regarded  the  works 
as  nothing  in  comparison  with  what  must  formerly  have  existed. 

The  remarks  here  applied  to  Mexico  alone,  may  with  equal  pro- 
priety be  applied  to  the  rest  of  Spanish  America.  The  withdrawal 
of  capital  from  the  mines,  the  depopulation  of  mining  districts,  the 
neglect  of  those  industries,  agricultural  and  other,  upon  which  the 
successful  working  of  the  mines  depended,  the  abandonment  of  the 
works  and  machinery  to  the  elements,  the  vandal  and  the  thief,  were 
common  throughout  the  whole  of  Central  and  South  America. 

The  immediate  effect  of  these  circumstances  was  very  decided, 
and  full  of  im|)ortant  consequences  to  the  world.      Taking  Mexico 

'"  Pliny,  in  his  account  of  the  Sp.inish  mines,  made  a  similar  observation  nearly  two 
thousand  years  ago.      It  seems  a  pity  to  be  obliged  to  repeat  it. 

"  Ward's  "  Ntcxico."  II,  56,  57,  116,  etc.     See  also  Jacob,  chap.  xxv. 

'*  For  a  particular  account  of  the  capital  thus  invested,  see  Ward,  li,  64,  et  seq. 

'•^  Ward's  expression,  11,  76. 


366  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

by  itself  and  following  Ward,  the  production  from  1796  to  1810  in- 
clusive amounted  to  an  annual  average  of  $24,000,000,  of  which  about 
five  per  cent,  was  gold,  the  remainder  silver.  From  181 1  to  1825 
the  production  fell  to  an  annual  average  of  less  than  $11,000,000, 
of  which  about  eight  and  a-half  per  cent,  was  gold,  the  remainder 
silver.  In  1826  the  production  did  not  exceed  $8,000,000;  in  1829 
it  was  still  less."  By  the  year  1842  it  had  again  risen  to  about 
$23,000,000,'^  and  during  the  five  years  ending  with  1875  it  averaged 
$22,500,000  a  year."' 

If  the  view  be  extended  to  the  whole  of  Spanish  America,  includ- 
ing Mexico,  the  decline  in  the  production  of  the  precious  metals  was 
still  more  pronounced.  Previous  to  the  Revolution,  the  average  an- 
nual produce  of  gold  and  silver — chiefly  the  latter — amounted  to 
$36,000,000.  From  this  sum  it  fell  during  the  Revolution,  that  is  to 
say,  from  1810  to  1825,  to  $25,000,000,  and  in  1829,  which  seems  to 
have  been  the  lowest  point  of  the  depression,  it  probably  did  not  ex- 
ceed $20,000,000." 

The  significance  of  this  decline  in  production  will  be  better  under- 
stood when  it  is  remembered  that  before  the  produce  of  the  Russian 
gold  mines  began  to  be  important  (in  1841  they  amounted  for  the 
first  time  to  so  much  as  $5,000,000  a  year)  the  silver  mines  of  Spanish 
America  constituted  the  principal, almost  the  only  source,  from  which 
for  a  long  period,  the  European  world  had  been  accustomed  to  derive 
its  supplies  of  the  precious  metals. 

With  the  falling  off  of  the  customary  supplies  began  a  diminution 
of  the  European  stock  of  coin,  which,  it  is  estimated,  fell  from  $1,- 
900,000,000  in  1809,  to  $1,557,000,000  in  1829.'^  The  civilized 
world  was  thus  threatened  with  a  calamity  similar  to  that  which  had 
befallen  it  upon  the  decline  of  the  Roman  mines.  The  customary 
supplies  of  the  precious  metals  were  arrested,  the  general  stock  had 
begun  to  diminish,  and  prices  threatened  to  fall,  not,  indeed,  simul- 
taneously, but  in  that  irregular  order  which  would  subvert  all  the  ex- 
isting relations  of  society,  and  plunge  them  into  a  confusion  as  pro- 
found as  that  of  the  Dark  Ages. 

'^  Jacob,  327,  allows  eleven  and  a-half  million  dollars  for  each  of  the  years  1826 
and  1827,  and  twelve  millions  for  1829,  and  1830;  but,  as  he  himself  admits,  these  es- 
timates were  based  on  very  imperfect  data. 

'^Thompson's  "Recollections  of  Mexico,"  p.  203,  quoted  in  De  Bow's  "Re- 
sources," I,  294.       '^  "  Report  U.  S.  Monetary  .Commission,"    Appendix  p.  383. 

"  Jacob,  342,  and  elsewhere  throughout  his  xxvth  chapter,  where  the  details  by 
countries  and  the  delapidated  condition  of  the  mines  is  described. 

'*  Jacob.  This  calculation  is  supported  by  Gerboux,  Storch,  Tooke,  and  several 
other  writers  of  eminence.  They  all  admit  an  important  decline  of  the  European 
stock  of  coin  during  the  period  of  the  Spanish-American  revolution. 


THE    Sl'AN'lSH-A.MKKICAN     KKVOLUllON.  367 

It  is  to  the  effort  to  avert  this  calamitous  fall  of  prices  that  we  are 
indebted  to  that  extension,  which  amounts  almost  to  a  creation,  of 
the  modern  banking  system,  and  which  took  place  between  the  years 
1810  and  1S30.  As  with  many  new  systems,  this  one  at  first  was  em- 
ployed without  due  precautions.  Banks  were  established  on  too 
slender  a  basis,  with  too  many  and  too  important  privileges,  and  the 
result  was  that,  until  better  systems  were  devised,  failures  were  com- 
mon, and  financial  crises  followed  one  another  in  rapid  succession. 
Improved  systems  were,  however,  eventually  established,  and  society 
at  length  learned  how  to  conduct  its  exchanges,  and  sustain  the  ac- 
customed level  of  prices  even  after  the  customary  supports  of  such 
level — namely,  the  European  stock  of  the  precious  metals  as  main- 
tained by  the  annual  supplies  from  Spanish  America — had  fallen  away. 
The  perturbations  in  the  commercial  world  during  the  interval  when 
this  experience  was  being  acquired,  viz. ,  irvm  the  breaking  out  of  the 
Spanish  American  Wars  of  Independence  to  the  period  when  the 
produce  of  the  Russian  mines  became  important — say  from  1810  to 
1842 — will  long  be  remembered  for  their  frequency  and  violence. 

Moreover,  the  Spanish  American  Revolution,  and  therefore  its  pre- 
cursor the  French  Revolution, bequeathed  to  us  something  even  more 
important  than  the  modern  banking  system.  They  emancipated  the 
slave  and  peon,  and  substituted  the  institution  of  mining  for  the  pre- 
cious metals  by  free  labourers,  an  institution  which  since  the  days  of 
the  Roman  commonwealth  had  been  unknown."  When  the  tocsin 
sounded  that  proclaimed  the  revolution  in  New  Spain,  the  fetters  fell 
from  off  the  person  of  every  mining  slave  in  the  world.  Thenceforth 
the  precious  metals  were  to  be  obtained  by  free  larour;  and  al- 
though the  stock  which  conquest  and  slavery  had  amassed  might  last 
the  world  long  enough  to  influence  the  value  of  whatever  metal  might 
be  mined  by  freemen  for  centuries  yet  to  come;  yet  that  influence 
was  to  continually  grow  less,  and,  at  some  time  or  another,  would  and 
will  assuredly  come  to  an  end. 

'*  Ward's  work  contains  an  interesting;  and  comprehensive  summarj'  of  the  min- 
ing laws  and  regulations  of  New  Spain  under  the  Spanish  crown  ;  but  so  far  as  it 
leaves  the  impression,  which  to  some  extent  it  certainly  does,  that  the  degree  of  free- 
dom enjoyed  by  the  mine  owners  (as  to  the  workmen  they  were  virtually  slaves  down 
to  the  period  of  the  revolution)  was  due  to  any  liberality  on  the  part  of  the  govern- 
ment, it  is  misleading.  The  reason  why  the  Spanish  government  accorded  the  privi- 
leges which  he  mentions,  is  due  to  the  fact,  and  it  is  one  of  the  proofs,  that  gold  and 
silver  mining  was  unprofitable.  Had  this  been  other^vise,  there  is  no  room  to  doubt, 
from  its  proneness  to  monopolise  every  profitable  industry  upon  which  it  could  lay  its 
hands,  that  the  government  would  have  conducted  the  mines  itself. 

As  it  was,  it  shrewdly  left  the  miner  to  enjoy  or  suffer  all  the  hazards  of  discovery, 
and  encounter  all  the  obstacles  to  production  ;  and  when  this  was  effected,  it  taxed 
the  protluct  right  and  left,  in  every  conceivable  way,  so  as  to  leave  as  little  of  it  to  the 
producer  as  he  was  content  to  take  without  rebelling  against  its  authority, 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


THE    APPALACHIAM    MINES. 


Circumstances  which  influenced  the  opening  of  these  mines — Scarcity  of  gold — ^ra- 
of  low  prices — Humboldt's  opinion — Product  of  the  mines — Number  of  slaves  em- 
ployed— Cost  of  their  subsistence — Unprofitable  nature  of  the  Industry — Closure  of 
the  mines — Revival  in  1859 — Second  closure — Recent  condition  of  the  mines — Pov- 
erty of  the  neighbourhood — Wealth  of  the  surrounding  agricultural  country. 

THE  great  mountain  chain  which  separates  the  Atlantic  States 
from  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  extends  from  Eastern  Canada 
to  the  northern  portion  of  Alabama,  was  called  Appalache  by  the 
southern  Indians,  and  Alleghany  by  the  northern  tribes.  Gold  and 
silver  have  been  found  at  intervals  all  along  the  chain,  from  the 
Chaudiere  Valley,  below  Quebec,  to  the  foot-hills  of  South  Carolina. 
The  greatest  development  has  been  of  gold  on  the  eastern  flanks  of 
the  chain,  south  of  the  Potomac  river. 

Indications  that  the  Spanish  gold-hunters  of  the  i6th  and  17th 
centuries  were  aware  of  the  auriferous  character  of  the  Appalachian 
range  have  been  met  with  near  Abbeville,  South  Carolina,  and  else- 
where. In  1606,  under  a  charter  of  James  I.,  the  right  to  explore 
and  settle  the  North  American  continent,  from  the  34th  to  the  45th 
parallel  (say  from  South  Carolina  to  Canada),  was  granted  to  the  Lon- 
don and  Plymouth  Companies  upon  condition  that  one-fifth  of  the 
gold  and  silver  and  one-fifteenth  of  the  copper  discovered  should  go 
to  the  Crown.  The  only  results  of  these  grants  were  Captain  John 
Smith's  expedition  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  by  way  of  the  Chickahominy 
River,  and  the  shipment  to  London  of  a  cargo  of  pyrites,  which  that 
hero  mistook  for  gold-dust.     Lock,  123. 

In  North  Carolina  the  Anson  Mine  consisted  of  the  bed  of  Richard- 
son's Creek,  which  ran  dry  in  summer  and  disclosed  a  gravel  deposit 
containing  gold.  Read's  Mine,  in  Cabarras  county,  occupied  the 
bed  of  another  affluent  of  Rocky  river.  It  was  here  that  in  1799  a 
slave  had  taken  out  a  single  nugget  weighing  34  pounds  Troy;  but 
although  the  vicinity  was  afterwards  thoroughly  dug  over,  no  other 


THE    APPALACHIAN    MINES.  369 

rich  find  was  encountered.  Twenty  miles  northward,  near  the  Yad- 
kin river,  a  nugget  of  600  pennyweights  was  found.  Parker's  Mine, 
fourmilessouthof  the  Yadkin,  yielded  a  nugget  of  4^  lbs.  weight,  and 
several  of  100  pennyweights  and  upwards.  Before  the  mint  was 
erected  at  Charlotteville  gold  dust  in  quills  was  commonly  passed  in 
the  vicinity  for  money  at  the  rate  of  90  cents  a  pennyweight. 

After  the  placers  were  worked  out,  the  quartz  was  located  and  de- 
veloped. Amine  in  Rowan  county,N.C.,with  a  small  vein  4  to  12  inches 
wide,  and  working  only  seven  hands,  produced  $12,000  in  a  single 
month.  The  Washington  silver  mine,  near  Lexington,  costing  for 
ground  and  buildings  about  $500,000,  and  yielding  $40,000  during 
the  first  two  years,  was  opened  in  1842  ;  but  abandoned  a  few  years 
later  as  hopelessly  unprofitable. 

In  Georgia  the  principal  mines  were  in  Habersham,  Hall  and  Cher- 
okee counties,  and  at  one  time  so  many  as  5,000  miners  were  employed 
on  these  alone;  but  with  the  rise  in  the  value  of  slaves,  they  were 
gradually  abandoned.  Early  in  1899  a  deposit  of  quicksilver  was  dis- 
covered in  Grant  Park,  Atlanta,  but  as  yet  it  has  not  been  worked. 

Yielding  to  the  clamours  of  the  gold-producing  localities  for  free 
coinage  facilities,  the  Federal  government  erected  branch  mints  at 
Charlotte,  N.C.,  and  Dahlonega,  Geo.,  neither  of  which  States  ever 
produced  enough  gold  to  pay  for  these  establishments.  Their  prac- 
tical uselessness  may  be  gathered  from  the  cost  of  coinage  as  com- 
pared with  that  at  the  principal  mint  in  Philadelphia. 

Cost  of  coining  $100  worth  of  coins  at  the  various  Mints  of  the  United 
States  as  reported  to  Congress,  March  ji,  1842  : 


Y(ar. 

Philadelphia. 

A^ew  Orleans. 

Charlotte. 

Dahlonega. 

1838 

$1-52 

$154.06 

$17.82 

$12-43 

1839 

2.07 

19.72 

903 

10.78 

1840 

2.48 

5.68 

9-44 

9- 32 

184I 

4-34 

8.12 

9.02 

6.09 

Average,      $2.60  *  $11  33  $965 

*  In  1S38,  owing  to  the  limited  coinage,  it  cost  more  to  fabricate  the  small  coins  at 
New  Orleans  than  the  coins  were  worth  ;  for  this  reason  an  average  of  four  years 
would  be  misleading.     An  average  of  the  two  years  1S40  and  1S41  is  $6.90. 

In  short,  while  the  cost  of  coinage  in  Philadelphia  was  about  2^ 
per  cent,  ad  valorem,  it  was  7  per  cent,  in  New  Orleans,  9  =  3  per  cent, 
in  Dahlonega  and  1 1  Jo  per  cent,  in  Charlotte.  These  expenses  did 
not  cover  the  rent  and  repairs  of  buildings  and  plant,  nor  interest  on 
the  cost.  They  constituted  in  effect  a  gratuity  to  the  owners  of  bul- 
lion for  which  the  government  received  no  consideration  whatever. 


370  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Reverting  to  the  period  about  1824,  when  the  Appalachian  mines 
first  became  noticeably  productive,  the  commercial  world,  for  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century,  had  been  drained  of  the  precious  metals,  to  fill  the 
void  occasioned  by  the  change  made  by  the  East  Indian  Company, 
from  copper  and  billon  to  silver  money  in  India.  Coincidently  with 
this  drain  to  the  East  occurred  the  failure  of  the  Brazilian  mines, 
the  Spanish-American  revolutions,  and  the  closure  of  the  remaining 
mines  of  the  West.  The  metallic  stock  of  the  Occident  began  to  di- 
minish;  commerce  halted;  prices  fell;  bankruptcies  multiplied;  sharp 
cries  of  distress  arose  on  all  sides;  and  the  auriferous  deposits  which, 
before  the  fall  of  prices,  were  not  worth  working,  came  again  into 
play.  This  is  what  occurred  in  North  Carolina  and  Virginia;  the 
same  thing  occurred  at  the  same  time  in  Siberia.  The  mines  had 
been  worked  long  before ;  all  at  once  they  became  unusually  attractive 
and  productive.  Why?  Because  gold  had  become  scarce  and  dear, 
and  because  now  that  mine-slavery  was  largely  over,  it  paid  better 
than  before  to  search  for  it,  to  take  the  chances  of  finding  it,  and 
when  found,  to  carry  it  to  the  eleemosynary  mints,  which  the  policy 
of  "free  coinage"  had  erected. 

Baron  von  Humboldt,  than  whom  there  is  no  higher  authority  on 
the  subject,  expresses  a  somewhat  similar  opinion:  -'Almost  at  the 
same  moment  in  which  the  Ural  opened  its  golden  treasures  and  be- 
gan to  replace  what  the  diminished  alluvions  of  Brazil  were  no  longer 
in  a  condition  to  supply,  strata  containing  gold  were  discovered  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  Alleghanies:  in  Virginia,  North  and  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Tennessee  and  Alabama.  The  most  flourishing 
period  of  these  American  gold  washings  was  from  1830  to  1835."' 

The  produce  of  the  Appalachian  gold  mines  is  indicated  by  the 
deposits  of  American  bullion  by  private  individuals  in  the  mints  of 
the  United  States,  the  larger  portion  of  the  produce  having  been  thus 
deposited:  Year  1824,  $5,000;  1825,  $1 7,000;  1826,  $20,000;  1827, 
$21, 000;  1828,  $46,000;  1829,  $140,000;  1830,  $466,000;  1831, 
$520,000;  1832,  $678,000;  1833,  $868,000;  1834,  $898,000;  1S35, 
$698,000;^  1836,  $467,000;  1837,  $282,000;  total  1824  to  1837  in- 
clusive, $5,126,500.  From  1838  to  1847  inclusive  the  amount  was 
$2,623,641;  total  from  1824  to  1847  inclusive  $7,750,141 ;  total  from 
1804  to  1866  inclusive,  $19,375,890;  and  to  the  present  time  about 
twenty-five  million  dollars.  Allowing  for' gold  not  deposited  in  the 
mints  of  the  United  States,  the  entire  product  has  been  estimated  in 

'  Humboldt's  "  Fluctations  of  Gold,"  p.  62. 


THE    APPALACHIAN    MINES.  37 1 

round  figures  at  forty  million  dollars.'  When  the  California  mines 
were  discovered  in  1S48  the  Appalachian  mines  were  abandoned  and 
the  produce  declined.  Of  the  total  amount,  North  Carolina  produceil 
about  50  per  cent. ;  Georgia,  ;^^  per  cent. ;  Virginia,  8  per  cent. ;  South 
Carolina,  6  per  cent.  ;  Tennessee  and  Alabama,  3  per  cent. 

The  work  of  the  mines  was  done  by  about  2,500  negro  slaves,  who, 
being  valuable  workmen  and  servants  fit  for  other  employment,  were 
well  clothed  and  fed;  so  that  their  labour  cost  to  their  owners  not 
less  than  half  a  dollar  per  day,  say  $180  a  year,  or  for  the  whole 
number,  about  $450,000  a  year.  In  seventeen  years  (the  productive 
period  of  the  mines)  this  amounted  to  §7,650,000,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  first  cost  of  the  mines,  machinery  and  other  plant,  quicksilver 
and  mining  supplies,  expense  of  superintendence,  office  expenses, 
legal  fees  and  numerous  other  charges. 

After  the  hydraulic  system  of  working  placer  mines  was  invented 
in  California  (185 1),  a  feeble  revival  of  gold  placer  mining  took  place 
on  the  Appalachian  range  in  1859.  This  saved  the  mints  of  Char- 
lotte and  Dahlonega  from  being  closed.  The  Civil  War,  which  broke 
out  in  186 1,  reserved  the  mints  for  the  service  of  the  Confederate 
States;  but  the  Appalachian  mines  contributed  no  metal  to  them. 

The  writer  visited  the  Appalachian  mines  of  North  Carolina  in  his 

youth  and  again   some  fifteen  years   ago.      The  alluvions  (mostly 

shallow  deposits  in  gulches)  had  been  worked  off;    the  quartz  mines 

were  for  the  most  j^art  abandoned  and  filled  with  water;  there  were 

no  fences  or  railings  around  the  pits,  which  therefore  were  e.xceed- 

ingly  dangerous  to  persons  not  familiar  with  the  locality;  pieces  of 

machinery  and  ^he  remains  of  dismantled  structures  strewed  the 

ground ;  and  the  people  of  the  vicinity  were  poor  and  needy.   A  more 

desolate  picture  than  that  presented  by  the  immediate  neighbourhood 

it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive.    Yet,  once  away  from  this  scene  of 

of  devastation  and  neglect,  the  signs  of  prosperity  multiplied  on  all 

sides.      North  Carolina  is  a  rich  State,  but  its  riches  do  not  consist 

in  gold  mines.   They  are  to  be  found  in  her  farm-lands  and  factories. 

These  surround  the  mining  neighbourhoods  on  ail  sides  and  evince, 

by  striking  contrast  of  appearance,  their  superior  ability  to  maintain 

the  general  prosperity. 

'  The  deposits  of  domestic  pold  at  the  mints  down  to  1S36  inclusive,  were  furnished 
to  Humboldt  by  Albert  Ciallatin,  formerly  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  For  the  subse- 
quent period,  see  Macjjregor's  Statistics,  in.  1029  ;  Putnam's  Cyc,  p.  •;(») ;  Ure's  Die. 
Arts.  Mines,  etc..  11,  f)47  ;  Lock,  p.  123,  and  the  official  report  on  the  "  Mineral  Re- 
sources of  the  United  States,"  i86S,  Part  II,  p.  20;  which  is  the  authority  for  the 
"forty  millions"  of  total  produce  down  to  that  year.  We  very  much  doubt  if  the 
whole  produce,  even  to  the  present  lime  has  been  as  much. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


RUSSIA    AND    SIBERIA. 


Ancient  Scythia — Norse  conquest  of  Novgorod — Mongol  invasion — Establishment 
of  the  Muscovite  Empire — Money — Precious  Metals — Mines — The  conquest  of  Si- 
beria was  effected  by  gold-hunters — Cossack  expeditions  under  Yermak — Expedition 
of  Polish  exiles  to  the  Amur — Expedition  of  Bukholtz — Scarcity  of  precious  metals  in 
Russia — Expeditions  of  the  Zaparog  brigands — Survey  of  early  mining — The  Scythian 
Mongols — Huns — Tschudi — Norsemen — Tartar  Mongols — Gold  mines  of  Petchora — 
Silver  mines  of  Olkusz — Silver  and  gold  mines  of  Nertschinsk — Gold  mines  of  Berez- 
ovsk — Valley  of  the  Yenesei — Ancient  remains — Little  Bokara — The  Oxus — Kolyvan 
— Voetsk — Ekaterinburg — Berezovsk  —  The  Altai — Miask — Employment  of  dis- 
charged soldiers — Tschudi  remains — Gold  panic — Humboldt's  work — Tungousa  range 
— The  tundras — Remains  of  tropical  animals — The  Yenesei  tundras — Convict  sys- 
tem— Atchinsk — Minusinsk — Olekminsk — The  Amur  valley — Mantchuria — Produce 
of  the  Silver  mines — Total  gold  produce — Mania  for  gold  mining — Second  gold  panic — 
Demonetisation  of  gold  in  Holland  and  Belgium — Proposal  to  demonetise  it  in  France 
and  England — Failure  of  Banks  of  England  and  Austria — Calif ornian  and  Australian 
produce — Chevalier's  ' '  Fall  of  Gold  " — Russian  tax  on  gold  and  regulation  of  the  mines. 

RUSSIA,  before  the  Mongol  Tartar  occupation  of  1 223-1462,  is 
so  little  known  to  history,  and  that  little  is,so  perverted  and 
mixed  with  fable,  that  the  merest  outline  will  be  sufficient  to  prepare 
the  reader  for  the  more  authentic  history  which  begins  only  when 
that  occupation  quite  ended. 

What  is  known  to-day  as  Russia  was  to  the  Greeks  known  as  Scy- 
thia, the  ancient  accounts  of  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  pages  of 
Herodotus,  Strabo,  and  Pliny.  In  the  ninth  century  of  our  ^era, 
about  the  year  862,  the  northwestern  part  of  Russia  was  invaded  by 
the  Norsemen,  under  Ruric,  who  established  at  Novgorod  a  Gothic 
republic,  whose  arms  and  commerce  maintained  a  jealous  supremacy 
of  the  Hyperborean  world.  At  length  these  were  destroyed  by  that 
Byzantine  influence  which  made  itself  felt  in  the  military  career  0/ 
Ivan  (John)  III.  Vasilovich,  who  captured  the  city  of  Novgorod  and 
with  it  three  hundred  cartloads  of  gold  and  silver.  jMacgregor,  11, 
407,  dates  this  event  in  1450,  while  other  historians  prefer  1462  or 


RUSSIA    AND    SIBERIA.  373 

1471.'  Novgorod  at  that  period  contained  400,000  inhabitants;  its 
territorial  possessions  extended  to  the  White  Sea  and  the  Ural 
Mountains,  in  which  it  worked  the  gold  mines  of  Petchora;  it  was  the 
capital  of  that  pagan  Hansa,  whose  trade,  previous  to  the  establish- 
mant  of  the  christian  Hansa,  embraced  the  coasts  of  Europe  and  ex- 
tended to  farthest  India  and  China;  and  it  was  justly  called  Novgorod 
the  Great.  The  Norse  history  of  Russia  is  lost  in  the  ruin  wrought 
by  the  Muscovites  and  in  the  fables  erected  upon  that  ruin.  Novgort)d 
appears  to  have  been  ransomed  by,  or  else  it  defended  itself  suc- 
cessfully against,  the  Tartars,  only  to  fall  at  last  to  the  arms  of  Byz- 
antium; when  the  fanes  of  Woden,  which  had  escaped  the  Mongols, 
were  destroyed,  the  graves  plundered  and  the  Norse  runes  effaced; 
until  all  that  now  remains  of  the  once  famous  Gothic  republic  is  the 
proud  blood  of  the  Vikings  and  the  familiar  name  by  which  thev  were 
known.  This  was  Routsi\  the  nmwrs,  a  name  still  preserved  in  the 
title  of  the  Empire. 

From  the  conquest  of  Ruric,  A.  I).  S47  or  862,  possiblv  even  from 
the  remoter  period  of  Woden,  or  Woote,  B.  C.  90,  down  probably  to 
to  the  period  of  the  Mongol  invasion,  the  money  of  Novgorod  had 
consisted  of  parchment  notes,  which,  having  no  currency  beyond  the 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  republic,  obliged  the  clearings  (permutations) 
of  the  great  Fair  to  be  conducted  in  metallic  moneys.  These  con- 
sisted of  the  coins,  baugsand  slugs  of  various  nations — East  Indian, 
Chinese,  Arabian,  Roman,  Scandinavian  and  English,  the  Arabian 
largely  predominating  and  the  universal  integers  being  the  gold  Mark 
and  the  silver  Ora,  each  of  240  grains,  and  valued  at  8  for  i.'^  Com- 
merce probably  supplied  all  the  silver  that  was  needed  for  the  clear- 
ances of  the  Fair,  while  the  more  precious  metal  was  obtained  in 
limited  quantities  from  the  western  flanks  of  the  Ural. 

Between  the  period  of  the  Mongol  invasion  and  the  fall  of  the 
Gothic  republic  we  have  no  account  of  the  moneys  of  Novgorod. 
The  decline  of  its  trade  and  the  general  confusion  ot  the  times  ren- 
der it  all  but  certain  that  the  parchment  system  had  to  be  abandoned 
in  favour  of  metallic  slugs  and  coins:  chiefly  silver.  Indeed,  some 
specimens  of  both  classes  of  these  moneys  are  still  extant,  and  though 
they  are  without  dates,  they  have  been  from  other  evidences  ascribed 
b  •  numismatists  to  this  period  of  turmoil.' 

'  In  many  medieval  dates  relating  to  Russia  a  difference  occurs  of  fifteen  years, 
which  may  be  due  to  those  changes  in  the  Roman  calendar  which  are  discussed  in  the 
author's  "Worship  of  .Augustus  Cx-sar." 

*  .\  full  account  of  these  moneys  will  be  found  in  the  "History  of  Monetary  Systems." 
•*  "  Money  and  Civilization."  chapter  on  Russia,  pp.  21^4-5. 


374  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Practically,  therefore,  the  history  of  the  precious  metals  in  Russia 
begins  with  the  establishment  of  the  monarchy  by  Ivan  III.,  in  1462, 
The  first  coins  were  struck  by  Basil  IV.,  1425-61 ;  the  title  of  Czar  or 
Caesar  was  assumed  by  Ivan  III.,  in  1482;  and  the  mines  once  worked, 
but  afterwards  neglected  by  the  Norsemen,  were  opened  in  the  same 
reign.  *'  The  mines  of  Petchora  were  discovered  (?)  in  1491,  and 
Russia  for  the  first  time  saw  silver  and  copper  money,  the  produce 
of  its  own  territory,  coined  in  the  capital."*  This  capital  was  now 
Moscow. 

The  monetary  history  of  Russia,  from  the  establishment  of  the 
monarchy  to  the  conquest  of  Siberia,  proves  that  the  precious  metals 
were  scarce  and  little  used.  The  earlier  czars  of  Russia  had  to  ac- 
complish the  almost  insuperable  task  of  cementing  together  a  vast 
empire,  composed  of  divers  races  and  nationalities,  without  the  in- 
centive of  that  spoil  of  cities  which  had  so  powerfully  assisted  the 
establishment  of  the  Moslem  Empire,  nor  that  spoil  of  the  mines  which 
at  a  subsequent  period  built  up  the  empire  of  the  Spanish  monarchs 
in  America.  The  only  resource  left  to  the  Russians  was  the  old 
Roman  one  of  an  overvalued  copper  currency,  which,  notwithstand- 
ing its  many  disadventages,  sufficiently  served  its  purpose,  until  the 
Mongolian  placers  east  of  the  Ural  were  prospected,  invaded,  con- 
quered and  exploited.  So  late  as  1663,  the  inhabitants  of  Moscow 
broke  into  revolt  on  account  of  the  overvalued  copper  coinage. 
Meanwhile,  brigands,  miners  and  Cossacks  were  scouring  the  Urals 
and  prospecting  for  gold  even  beyond  the  Khirgis  steppes.  Ample 
relief  was  to  come  within  half  a  century,  but  the  unpatriotic  and  re- 
bellious IMuscovites  could  not  have  seen  so  far  ahead. 

It  has  been  often  remarked  that  every  step  in  the  extension  of  the 
Russian  Empire  eastward,  from  the  Ural  chain  to  the  Okhotsk  Sea, 
was  preceded  by  the  discovery  of  gold;  in  other  words,  that  Siberia 
was  wrested  from  the  Kirghis,  Tschudis,  Tungouses,  and  other  na- 
tives, not,  as  has  been  pretended  by  some  Russian  historians,  to  con- 
fer upon  it  the  fruits  of  civilization,  but  to  exploit  it  for  the  precious 
metals.  Says  Humboldt:  "  Upon  first  taking  possession  of  Siberia, 
the  tombs  were  despoiled,  and  so  great  a  quantity  of  gold  was  plun- 
dered from  the  graves  (karganui)  of  Krasnojarsk,  that,  according  to 
Muller,  a  reliable  historian,  it  occasioned  a  remarkable  (local)  fall  in 
the  value  of  that  metal. "    "  Fluctuations  of  gold, "  p.  38.   Says  Lock : 

*  "  Russia,"  by  Karamsin,  Tooke  and  Segur,  edited  by  Kelly,  1840,  i,  127.  These 
writers  could  hardly  have  been  acquainted  with  the  Norse  moneys,  or  the  Tartar  coin- 
ages, of  which  an  interesting  collection  is  to  be  found  in  the  archaeological  museum  of  the 
Hermitage,  at  St.  Petersburg. 


RUSSIA    AND    SIliKKI.-Vv  375 

**  Lured  onward  by  reports  of  fabulous  wealth,  a  band  of  Cossack  ad- 
venturers, led  by  that  'illustrious  brigand,' Yermak  (1580-4),  laid 
the  foundations  of  a  new  empire  for  the  czars,  beyond  the  Urals." 
"Gold,"  p.  ^S.  Says  Atkinson:  "The  wars  by  which  Russia  con- 
quered Siberia  were  entirely  carried  on  by  private  adventurers  at 
their  own  cost,  who  were  incited  to  the  undertaking  by  their  love  of 
plunder.  (In  an  almost  desert  country  this  could  not  mean  plunder 
of  the  inhabitants,  but  plunder  of  the  graves  and  the  gold  placers). 
A  Pole  and  some  other  e.xiles  escaped  from  Yeneseisk  and  built  a 
small  fort  on  the  Amur;  but  having  quarrelled  with  the  Tungouses, 
they  offered  the  conquest  to  the  emperor  of  Russia,  and  begged  for- 
giveness for  their  former  offences ;  while  the  Tungousesabout  the  same 
time  applied  for  assistance  to  the  emperor  of  China.  This  led  to  dis- 
putes between  the  two  governments,  but  war  was  prevented  and  the 
boundary  between  China  and  Siberia  was  established  by  a  treaty  con- 
cluded at  Pekin  in  16S9."  "Oriental  and  Western  Siberia,"  1858, 
cited  in  Appleton's  Encyc,  xvi,  624.  Says  Lock,  again:  "In  the 
early  part  of  the  i8th  century,  Bukholtz  led  his  Cossacks,  ever  the 
vanguard  of  Russian  explorers,  to  the  Semipalansk  gold  region  ne.\t 
to  Altai.  .  .  .  The  chief  object  of  the  Trans-Baikalian  expedi- 
tion of  1849,  ostensibly  sent  to  define  the  boundary  with  China,  was 
to  discover  the  gold  placers  in  the  Amur  country  (Chinese-Mantch- 
uria).  Two  mining  engineers  and  a  corps  of  miners  accompanied  the 
expedition."     "Gold, "pp.  374,  415. 

Says  Tatarinof :  "  Hardly  had  our  troops,  under  Major-General 
Chernaief,  entered  Kokand  than  reports  of  its  prodigious  wealth  flew 
from  ear  to  ear.  Severtsef,  the  geologist,  was  present  with  the  ac- 
tive forces  in  the  field  during  the  summer  of  1S64.  He  was  told  of 
a  gold  mine  on  the  Kukrcii,  and  discovered  a  whole  system  of  allu- 
vial deposits  near  the  sources  of  the  Tersi.  Thither  the  gold-miners 
rushed  in  quest  of  a  new  Dorado." 

Nor  were  the  forays  into  Siberia  confined  to  the  strictly  criminal 
classes:  during  the  last  half  of  the  iSth  century  they  were  largely 
reinforced  by  the  ferocious  Zaparogs,  or  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper 
(Boristhenes),  whose  territory  extended  from  that  river  to  the  Bug 
(Hypanis).  These  people  had  been  the  terror  of  the  Ukrane  and  the 
adjacent  provinces,  through  which  they  rode  headlong,  plundering 
corn  and  cattle  and  setting  fire  to  the  villages,  to  force  the  women 
out  of  their  hiding-places,  in  order  to  subject  them  to  the  worst  of 
indignities.  The  dispersion  of  these  brigands  began  in  1741-62, 
when  many  of  them  escaped  to  Siberia,  where  they  took  part  in  those 


376  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

forays  and  gold-hunting  expeditions  which  gradually  brought  that 
immense  territory  under  the  dominion  of  the  czar.  The  remainder 
were  surrounded  by  a  Russian  army  in  1798,  and  those  who  did  not 
surrender,  fled  to  the  Danube  or  to  Asia  Minor. 

Mining  for  the  precious  metals  within  the  boundaries  of  Asiatic 
Russia  began  at  a  remote  period.  To  say  nothing  of  the  Argonautic 
expedition  to  Colchis,  which  may  be  either  fabulous  or  distorted,* nor 
of  the  mines  of  Scythia  alluded  to  by  Herodotus  and  Strabo,  the 
Tschudi,  or  Judi,  worked  mines  in  the  Ural  and  Altai  ranges  long 
before  our  sera.  Their  stone  and  copper  implements  and  many  traces 
of  their  workings  are  still  to  be  seen.  In  1723,  Demidof's  miners, 
while  prospecting  for  minerals,  came  upon  old  Tschudi  mines  at  the 
southwest  end  of  Lake  Kolyvan.  In  1733-43  John  George  Gmelin, 
the  botanist,  examined  others.  No  iron  tools  were  found  in  them; 
but  as  iron  oxidises  and  disappears  in  the  course  of  ages,  this  is  not 
positive  proof  that  the  Tschudi  were  unacquainted  with  that  useful 
metal.  "^ 

In  the  reign  of  James  I.  of  England,  1603-25,  Walter  Busbee,  as- 
sayer  in  the  Mint,  was  sent  to  Russia  to  give  advice  as  to  the  gold 
mines  of  the  Ural.  He  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Tartars.  Calvert's 
"  Gold  Rocks  of  Great  Britain,"  p.  10.  From  this  passage  it  appears 
that  the  Ural  as  a  source  of  gold  was  not  being  neglected  in  Russia, 
though,  so  far  as  the  Russian  annals  are  concerned,  the  only  allusion 
to  mining  during  the  interval  between  the  working  of  the  mines  of 
Petchora  and  the  mission  of  Walter  Busbee,  relates  to  the  piratical 
expeditions  of  Yermak  and  his  Cossacks. 

The  lead-silver  mines  of  Olkusz,  northwest  of  Cracow,  were  worked 
early  in  the  17th  century.  In  1655  the  royal  tithe  or  production  tax  of 
10  per  cent,  amounted  to  1,225  marks  of  silver  and  1,514  quintals  of 
lead.  ...  It  appears  from  the  lowest  calculation  that  the  ore  ex- 
tracted from  the  mines  must  have  been  worth  476,773  florins,  each 
of  which  was  worth  four  florins  of  the  present  day.  Malte-Brun,  iv, 
373.  The  distinguished  writer  does  not  specify  the  interval  which 
this  production  filled,  though  it  is  presumed  that  he  means  a  year. 
Nor  does  he  determine  what  proportion  of  the  total  valuation  was 
derived  from  silver  and  what  from  lead.     The  mines  could  not  have 

^  The  gold  deposites  of  the  Caucasus,  though  immortalized  in  the  tradition  of  Jason 
and  the  Argonauts,  are  now  entirel)'  abandoned,  the  last  attempt  at  working  them 
having  been  suspended  in  1S75.     Am.  Encyc.  Brit.  art.  "Gold." 

*  Baron  Alex.  \'on  Humboldt,  who  was  a  mining  engineer,  and  who  alone  of  all  the 
writers  on  the  mines  of  antiquity,  recognized  the  essential  difference  between  a  quartz, 
vein,  or  reef,  and  a  placer,  gravel  or  drift  mme,  is  not  disposed  to  admit  that  the  an- 
cient mines  examined  by  Gmelin  were  quartz  mines.     In  his  courtly  manner  of  never 


RUSSIA     AM)    SIMKKIA.  377 

been  profitable,  because  when  Make-Brim  wrote,  about  1S20,  they 
were  abandoned  and  Olkusz  was  deserted  ami  in  ruins. 

But  in  fact,  west  of  the  Ural  chain,  the  discoveries  of  either  gold 
or  silver  within  the  boundaries  of  Russia  were  too  inconsiderable  to 
deserve  notice.  Practically,  mining  for  the  precious  metals  began 
with  the  forays  of  Yerniak  and  the  opening  of  Siberia.  During  the 
whole  of  the  17th  century  bands  of  predatory  Cossacks  roamed 
through  these  vast  domains,  prospecting,  conquering,  plundering  the 
inhabitants,  ransacking  the  Tschudi  sepulchres,  prospecting  again, 
washing  the  river  sands  for  gold,  digging  through  the  turf  or  tundra 
(tchundra),  into  the  frozen  placers  below,  or  pointing  out  to  the  govern- 
ment where  quartz  mines  might  be  located  (for  they  themselves  cared 
nothing  for  quartz),  and  where  serfs  or  convicts  might  be  led  to  delve 
for  gold  and  silver,  and  incidently  to  establish  those  needful  posts 
and  centres  of  supply  and  trade,  the  demands  for  which  increased 
with  the  wealth  which  these  brigands  had  obtained  through  plunder 
and  placer  mining.  Foremost  among  such  quartz  workings  were  the 
silver  mines  of  Nertchinsk,  opened  in  1704.  These  mines  are  in  the 
eastern  part  of  Siberia,  in  the  same  longitude  as,  and  720  miles  due 
north  from  Pekin,  China.  Nertchinsk  has  often  been  alluded  to  as  a 
quicksilver  mine.  In  fact  it  is  a  group  or  series  of  about  fifty  silver- 
lead  mines,  in  which  no  quicksilver  or  cinnabar  occurs.  The  suffer- 
ings of  those  victims  to  Russian  tyranny  who  were  supposed  to  be 
rotting  in  its  dark  recesses,  have  therefore  been  greatly  exaggerated. 
The  truth  is  bad  enough.  Quartz  mining  at  great  depths  is  not  es- 
pecially exhilarating  work,  even  when  done  voluntarily  and  at  good 
wages.  To  the  convicts  of  Nertchinsk  it  may  not  have  been  alto- 
gether congenial;  but,  as  the  Rev.  Henry  Lansdell,  an  eye-witness, 
shows  in  a  comparatively  recent  work,  it  was  not  marked  by  the  exer- 
cise of  any  noticeable  degree  of  hardship  or  tyranny.  No  women 
or  children  were  to  be  seen  in  the  mines.  The  author  also  declares 
that  there  are  no  quicksilver  mines  at  or  near  Nertchinsk, and  that  the 
narratives  of  Mr.  Lenke,  Baron  Rosen,  and  others,  were  exaggerated. 
"  Through  Siberia,"  1882.  The  writer  of  the  present  work,  who  vis- 
ited Russia  ten  years  previously,  and  had  abundant  opportunities  of 
observation,  can  offer  corroborative  testimony:  the  horrors  of  fhe 
Siberian  penal  system  were  greatly  magnified.     To  these  distorted 

directly  contradicting^  anybody,  he  merely  alludes  to  them  as  mines  known  by  the 
"ambiguous  denomination  of  Tschudisher  Tchurfe."  This  is  equal  to  saying  th.nt 
they  were  Tschudi  gravel  (drift)  mines,  covered  with  a  layer  of  turf  or  peat,  like 
those  recently  discovered  in  the  Klondyke,  and  worked  in  a  similar  manner,  by  re- 
moving the  moss-covered  turf,  thawing  the  frozen  gravel  beneath  and  then  drifting. 
Such  work  as  this  can  be  done  without  iron  tools. 


378  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

views  even  Mr.  Lansdell  contributed  a  share,  when  he  repeated  the 
tumid  story  of  a  British  sea  captain  who  had  visited  "the  mines  of 
Kara"  (possibly  Berezovsk),  in  1859: 

"  He  saw  2,000  men  branded  and  chained  to  their  barrows  by  night 
and  by  day.  The  overseer  of  the  gold  mines,  a  German,  told  him  he 
had  shot  four  men  who  had  killed  others  when  at  work.  And  I  (Lans- 
dell) have  heard  since  my  return  that  some  of  the  predecessors  of 
Col.  Trononovitch  (1879)  were  so  cruel  that  the  mere  mention  of  their 
names  made  convicts  tremble." 

The  ores  of  Nertchinsk  contained  from  five  to  forty  ounces  of 
silver  to  the  ton,  and  had  to  be  smelted.  They  produced:  1704-20, 
4,732  Russian  pounds  of  silver ;  1721-30,  1,498  lbs. ;  1731-40,  1,333 
lbs.;  1741-50,15,657  lbs.;  1751-60,43,631  lbs.;  1761-70,126,247 
lbs.;  1771-80,  about  160,000  lbs.;  1781-1800,  about  140,000  lbs.; 
1 801-10,  about  120,000  lbs. ;  181 1-20,  about  100,000  lbs. ;  and  1821— 
30,  about  95,000  lbs.  From  this  date  the  silver  produce  of  Nert- 
chinsk rapidly  declined,  until  it  lost  all  historical  importance.  Dur- 
ing the  latter  part  of  the  i8th  century  these  mines  employed  about 
2,000  convicts,  as  many  "  free  colonists,"  and  11,000  peasants — in  all 
about.  15,000  persons.  The  average  production  did  not  amount  to 
the  value  of  over  $6  per  capita  per  annum:  not  enough  to  pay  for 
victualling  the  miners.  When  after  many  years  these  facts  were  fully 
realized  by  the  administration,  a  portion  of  the  convicts,  to  their 
great  relief,  were  set  to  work  upon  the  gold  placers  of  Nertchinsk, 
which,  though  well  guarded  by  military,  were  at  all  events  above 
ground,  where  there  was  plenty  of  fresh  air  and  a  possible  chance  of 
escape.  These  placers  were  opened  in  1830,  but,  though  very  pro- 
ductive and  worked  with  convicts  and  serfs  until  1863,  they  proved 
to  be  scarcely  more  remunerative  than  the  subterranean  galenas. 
The  product  is  included  in  that  of  the  Amur  district  mentioned  fur- 
ther on.  A  few  exiles  annually  escaped  from  Nertchinsk  to  China, 
where  they  were  promptly  caught  and  religiously  surrendered,  as 
polluters  of  its  sacred  soil.  In  1863  the  government  threw  open  the 
placers  of  Nertchinsk  to  free  labourers,  thus  affording  a  stimulus  to 
mining  that  during  the  following  quinquennial  period  augmented  the 
production  about  50  per  cent.  ;  but  it  afterwards  fell  to  the  old  figure 
of  about  a  ton  and  a-half  of  gold  per  annum.  The  returns  bespeak 
a  considerable  amount  of  gold-stealing  by  the  workmen. 

The  progress  of  mining  discovery  in  Siberia  next  leads  to  the  ex- 
ceedingly interesting  narrative  of  Baron  Philip  Johan  von  Strahlen- 
berg,  a  Swedish  officer  who  was  captured  by  the  Russians  at  the  battle 
of  Pultova,  in  1709,  and  sent  a  prisoner  to  Siberia,  where  he  enjoyed 


3!». 


RUSSIA    AND   snsKkiA.  379 

the  advantage  of  personal  intercourse  with  the  governor  of  the  ter- 
ritory. Prince  Gargarin,  who,  like  himself,  was  a  stiulent  of  history, 
and  whose  pages  they  greatly  enriched  by  their  learned  and  unpreju- 
diced observations. 

The  part  of  Siberia  to  which  Von  Strahlenberg  was  consigned,  and 
where  he  spent  thirteen  years  of  his  life,  extended  from  the  Obi  east- 
ward to  the  valley  of  the  Yenesei,  in  which  were  ft)und  numerous  re- 
mains of  an  ancient  mining  race.  About  twenty  or  thirty  years  be- 
fore his  time,  a  former  governor  of  Siberia  had  authorized  the  plun- 
der of  the  native  graves  upon  condition  of  his  receiving  ten  percent, 
of  the  proceeds.  In  these  graves  were  found  gold  and  silver  coins, 
jewelry,  chessmen,  images,  bronze  (cast)  swords  and  bronze  metal 
plates  with  inscriptions  in  an  unknown  language.  Many  of  the  tombs 
were  of  stone,  and  lofty,  similar,  as  Von  Strahlenberg  remembered,  to 
the  tombs  of  the  ancient  Cimbri,  in  Holstein.  Some  of  the  educated 
Chinese  (Mongols),  who  visited  the  town  of  Yenesei,  asked  jiermis- 
mission  to  visit  these  tombs  as  those  of  their  "  ancestors  ";  but  as  the 
tombs  had  been  rifled,  such  permission  was  not  accorded. 

The  Tschudic  tombs  of  the  Irtisch,  an  affluent  of  the  Obi,  which 
flows  into  the  Arctic  Sea  between  the  Yenesei  river  and  the  Ural 
range,  are  of  a»different  period.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  contain 
"  Mongolian  "  remains,  but  these  maybe  regarded  as  having  been 
captured  by,  or  relinquished  to,  the  Tschudi,  perhaps  stolen  by  them 
from  the  tombs  of  the  races  who  preceded  them:  for  Von  Strahlen- 
berg says  that  the  existing  Tschudi  are  too  ignorant  and  unskillful 
to  have  fabricated  such  articles.  The  remains  include  Mongol  and 
Kalmuck  inscriptions  printed  on  cotton  or  silk  paper.  Of  a  far  later 
date  are  the  Arabian  relics  of  the  ninth,  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries 
of  our  Kra, acquired  by  the  Tscluuli  probably  from  the  .\rabian  traders 
at  Novgorod.  Among  these  was  a  copper  medal  containing  a  Mos- 
lem religious  inscription,  which  the  Tschudi  piously  venerated  or 
worshipped.' 

In  the  Yenesei  valley  the  rocks  through  which  the  river  in  some 
places  has  cut  its  way,  are  covered  with  pictorial  illustrations,  which 
appear  to  be  similar  to  those  on  the  coasts  of  Sweden,  facsimiles  of 
which  will  be  found  in  Du  Challu's  "  Viking  Age."  Von  Strahlen- 
berg's  observations  lead  to  the  impression  that  the  Mongols,  whose 

''  The  inscription  was  as  follows  :  "  To  him  who  seeks  I'lod  there  will  be  given  bkss- 
Jngs,  increase,  abundance,  prosperity,  plenty,  weahh,  )oy,  grace,  assistance,  favour, 
honour,  dignity,  hospitality,  stability,  welfare,  eternal  life,  power,  authority,  strength, 
applause,  and  immortality!"     Von  Strahlenberg,  327. 


380  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

religion  seems  to  have  been  largely  tinctured  with  Buddhism/ made 
five  great  conquering  expeditions  to  the  West:  first,  under  Ogus 
or  Oochus  Khan,  B.C.  670  and  632;  second,  under  Woden,  or  Woote, 
about  B  C.  90;  third,  under  Attila,  A.  D.  440,  and  Genseric,  A.D. 
445,  both  of  whom  led  vast  armies  of  Mongols  into  Europe;  fourth, 
under  Genghis  Khan  A.D.  1238,  and  his  nephew  Hulaku,or  Halagou 
Khan,  A.  D.  1257;  and  fifth,  under  Tamerlane,  A.  D.  1401.  In  all  of 
these  expeditions  a  vast  spoil  of  the  precious  metals  was  accumulated 
and  sent  into  Asia.' 

In  17 13  Prince  Gagarin  reported  to  the  government  at  Moscow 
that  placer  gold  was  obtained  in  Little  Bokhara,  by  the  inhabitants 
of  Yarkand.  At  the  same  period  the  Turkoman  elder,  Hadja  Neffez, 
from  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Caspian,  reported  gold  washing  on  the 
Oxus;  but  neither  of  these  sources  of  the  precious  metals  turned  out 
to  be  prolific,  and  the  receipts  of  gold  at  the  smelting  houses  of  Russia 
continued  without  material  augmentation  until  the  discovery  of  the 
silver  mines  of  Kolyvan,  between  the  rivers  Obi  and  Irtisch,  near  the 
Altai  mountains,  rivers  which  separate  Siberia  from  the  country  of 
the  Kalmuck  Chinese.  These  mines  were  first  discovered  in  1723  by 
Akinfi  Nikitich  Demidof,  who  worked  them  secretly  for  his  private 
emolument  until  1744,  when  he  made  a  merit  of  a  necessity  by  turn- 
ing them  over  to  the  government.  They  produced  from  1749  to 
1762  between  8,000  and  16,000  pounds  '"  of  silver;  from  1763  to  1769 
between  20,000  and  32,000;  and  after  that  period  to  1778,  between 
40,000  and  48,000  pounds  per  annum.  The  silver  contain  upwards  of 
three  per  cent,  of  gold.  The  whole  produce  from  the  outset  amounted 
in  1 77 1  to  400,000  pounds  of  silver,  with  12,720  of  gold.  From  1772 
to  1778  inclusive,  the  produce  amounted  to  about  44,000  pounds  of 
silver,  and  1,200  pounds  of  gold  per  annum.  "These  mines  em- 
ployed nearly  40,000  colonists,  besides  the  peasants  in  the  district  of 
Tomsk  and  Kusnetz,  who,  in  lieu  of  paying  the  poll  tax  in  money,  cut 
wood,  make  charcoal,  and  transport  the  ore  to  the  foundries."  Bishop 
Coxe's  "  Travels,"  ed.  1792,111,435.      In   1838  the  Kolyvan  mines 

^  Witness  the  giant  Foot  of  Hercules  (Buddha)  the  legend  of  Xalmosis,  the  name 
Budini,  the  remarkably  tall  tombs,  the  drinking  from  skulls,  and  ,  many  curious  cus- 
toms related  of  the  Scythians  by  Herodotus  in  Melpomene,  Lxxi,  and  elsewhere.  In 
after  ages  Attila's  capital  in  Pannonia  was  called  Buddha,  the  modern  Buda-Pesth. 

^  According  to  Von  Strahlenberg,  the  Mongols  who  invaded  Scythia  during  the 
seventh  century  before  our  a;ra  were  from  the  Volga,  on  one  side  of  which  dwelt  the 
Unn  (Hun)  Oigurs  or  Ogus,  and  on  the  other  the  Nokos  Oigurs — the  latter  being  the 
generic  name.  There  is  no  racial  affinity  between  the  ancient  Huns  and  the  modern 
Hungarians  or  Magyars.     The  former  were  Tartars  ;  the  latter  are  Finns. 

'"  The  pounds  herein  mentioned  are  Russian  pounds,  which  are  about  one-tenth 
lighter  than  avoirdupois,  and  one-tenth  heavier  than  Troy  pounds. 


RUSSIA    AND    SinKKIA.  3S1 

were  still  producing  34,300  pounds  of  silver  and  100  pounds  of  gold 
per  annum,  besides  a  considerable  cjuantity  of  copper.     McCuUoch. 

In  1737  the  gold  mines  of  Voetsk,  near  Olonetz,  between  Lake 
Onega  and  the  White  Sea,  were  discovered.  In  1738  they  were 
opened.  From  1744  to  1776  this  district  yielded  only  57  pounds  of 
gold,  and  about  9,000  poods  of  copper.  As  the  expenses  amounted 
to  §80,000  more  than  the  income,  the  district  was  abandoned  until 
1772,  when  it  was  again  worked.  After  that  time  it  only  yielded  two 
or  three  pounds  of  gold  per  annum.  In  1794  the  district  was  e.x- 
hausted  and  again  abandoned.      Lock,  369  and  720. 

The  gold  mines  near  Ekatherinburg,  east  of  the  Ural,  were  dis- 
covered in  1743.  The  annual  produce  never  e.\ceeded  200  pounds 
of  gold,  and  it  was  commonly  much  less:  in  1772  it  was  only  loi 
pounds. 

The  celebrated  mines  of  Berezovsk,  east  of  the  Ural,  were  discorr- 
ered  in  1745,  and  first  worked  in  1754.  They  consisted  of  quartz: 
veins  with  iron  pyrites  containing  gold.  From  1754  to  1788  they 
yielded  about  one  million  dollars  in  gold,  an  average  of  about  $28;- 
000  a  year.  Towards  the  end  of  the  century  this  rose  to  upwards  of 
$150,000  a  year.  From  this  point  to  the  year  1850  the  produceof 
the  quartz  mines  gradually  fell  to  about  $25,000  a  year.  In  182J,  out. 
of  66  quartz  locations  only  eight  were  worked.  But  meanwhile,  com- 
mencing nominally  in  1814,  and  practically  in  1S19,"  the  placers  or 
alluvions  of  the  district  had  been  opened,  and  for  a  while  the  com- 
bined product  of  quartz  and  placer  mines  rose  to  an  average  of  $r,ooo 
a  day.  From  18 14  to  1874,  a  period  of  60  years,  the  product  was 
2,201  poods,  or  88,040  pounds  of  gold.  During  the  i8th  century  the 
number  of  workmen  employed  was  upwards  of  3,000,  of  whom  about 
1,250  were  daily  engaged.  During  the  19th  century  the  number  of 
miners  in  this  district  was  about  4,000.  The  wages  were  a  mere 
pittance.  The  gold  produced  was  of  low  grade,  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  it  not  being  over  0.85  fine.  On  the  other  hand,  gold- 
stealing  by  the  workmen  was  common;  so  that  if  the  official  returns 
of  the  product  are  valued  as  though  the  gold  were  nearly  fine,  the 
computation  will  bring  the  value  of  the  real  product  to  very  nearly 
the  truth.      From  first  to  last  this  could  hardly  have  been  less  than 

"  The  Ukase  of  May  2S,  1S12,  forbade  the  working  of  the  placers  or  alluvions  by 
private  individuals.  In  1814  some  relaxation  of  this  edict  was  made.  In  1S19  the 
owners  of  quartz  mining,  or  smelting,  works,  in  the  Ural  were  permitted  to  work  the 
placers  in  their  districts.  In  1S2O  this  right  was  extended  to  such  Russian  subjects 
as  might  be  recommended  by  the  Minister  of  Finance.  In  1828  a  similar  right  was 
extended  to  districts  beyond  the  Ural.     Lock,  431,  439. 


382  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

twenty-five  million  dollars.  Yet,  after  the  share  of  the  Crown  was  de- 
ducted, there  did  not  remain  enough  of  the  entire  product  (even  had 
there  been  no  other  outlay  save  wages)  to  pay  the  men  ten  cents  a  day. 
Malte-Brun;  Hermann;  Phillips;  Lock;  London  Mining  Journal. 

The  first  returns  of  gold  from  the  Altai  (the  Schlangenberg)  were 
received  at  St.  Petersburg  in  1745.  In  1774  the  smelting  ores  of 
Miask  were  first  worked.  This  was  at  Petropavlofsk,  almost  due 
south  from  Ekaterinburg.  In  1798  these  mines  and  works  were  taken 
over  by  the  government.  In  1823  the  alluvions  of  this  district  were 
opened,  producing  about  a  ton  of  gold  annually.  In  1876  the  allu- 
vions of  Miask  were  thrown  open  to  individuals  and  their  productive- 
ness was  increased  to  about  two  and  a-half  tons  of  gold  per  annum, 
giving  them  the  reputation  of  being  the  richest  placers  in  the  Ural. 
Many  large  nuggets  have  been  found  in  them:  one  of  them,  of  very 
irregular  shape,  from  the  Tsarevo  Alexandrovsk  placer,  containing 
no  less  than  79  pounds  of  metal,  valued  at  about  $17,500.  A  fac- 
simile of  this  nugget,  made  of  plaster  of  Paris,  gilded,  was  courteously 
sent  to  the  writer  by  the  superintendent  of  the  School  of  Mines  at  St. 
Petersburg. 

The  liberation  of  those  vast  armies  which,  until  1813,  Russia  deemed 
it  necessary  to  maintain  in  Europe,  marks  an  epoch  in  the  production 
of  the  precious  metals.  The  soldiery  had  nothing  to  do;  why  not 
open  the  placer  mines  to  their  activity?  It  will  scarcely  be  denied 
that  views  of  this  character  had  some  consideration  in  the  Russian 
regulations  of  this  period.  From  1 704,  when  Nertschinsk  was  opened, 
to  1813,  when  the  armies  returned  from  Europe,  the  entire  precious 
metals  product  of  Russia  had  been  about  1,800  poods  of  gold,  value 
about  18  million  dollars,  and  68,000  poods  of  silver,  value  about  42^ 
million  dollars.  A  glance  at  the  General  Table,  printed  elsewhere  in 
this  work,  will  show  how  rapidly  this  rate  of  production  afterwards 
advanced. 

The  stoppage  of  the  Spanish- American  supplies  also  began  to  be 
felt  at  the  period  mentioned.  On  the  one  hand,  a  deficiency  of  the 
precious  metals,  on  the  other,  a  redundancy  of  idle  men  capable  of 
supplying  the  deficiency.  The  not  altogether  unnatural  consequence 
was  that  they  were  made  to  supply  it.  The  new  source  of  supply  was 
the  Altai  diggings.  Herodotus  had  written  them  up  twenty-two  cen- 
turies before.  In  1723  old  Tschudi  workings  and  remains  had  been 
found  in  them.  In  1830,  after  a  few  years  of  prospecting,  the  Altai 
placer  district  began  to  be  noticeably  productive.  It  then  assumed  a 
political  importance.      Baron  von  Humboldt's  expedition  to  Siberia, 


RUSSIA     AND    SintKIA.  383 

at  the  request  of  the  f2iiii)cror  Nicholas,  was  confined  to  the  Ural. 
It  was  only  after  his  return  to  Berlin  that  the  Altai  placers  became 
so  productive  as  to  prompt  the  publication  of  his  "Fluctuations  of 
Gold."  This  work  was  designed  to  allay  the  ai)prchcnsions  of  those 
capitalists  who  feared  that  Russia  was  about  to  dump  upon  an  unpre- 
pared world  a  mass  of  the  yellow  metal  so  great  as  to  unsettle  prices 
and  destroy  the  stability  of  investments.  Coming  from  so  illustrious 
a  source,  who  can  doubt  that  it  successfully  performed  its  mission?  '■' 

Altai,  or  Altyn,  is  an  old  Mongol  word  for  gold:  also  for  money. 
It  appeared  in  the  name  of  the  medieval  a/tynnik,  or  one-kopeck 
piece,  the  aity/i,  or  three-kopeck  piece,  and  the  piath-altyn,  or  five- 
kopeck  piece.  The  same  word  occupies  a  conspicuous  place  in  the 
nomenclature  of  Asiatic  mountains,  passes,  gullies,  etc.,  for  example, 
the  Altyn-Immel,  or  Golden  Saddle,  a  pass  in  the  Semiretchian  Ala- 
tau,  where  Genghis  Khan  is  said  to  have  buried  his  saddle.  The 
smelting  works  for  silver  ores,  originally  erected  at  Kolyvan,  by 
Demidof,  had  been  in  operation  more  than  a  century  before  the  gold 
placers  of  the  Altai  were  unearthed.  The  discovery  no  sooner  reached 
the  government  than  a  capitation  tax  was  clapped  upon  iSo,ooo  idle 
men,  who,  in  default  of  payment,  were  set  to  work  upon  the  new  dig- 
gings. These  were  situated  in  a  northwestern  spur  of  the  Altai,  the 
eminences  of  which  were  distinguished  by  the  names  of  Abakans- 
Chrish,  Kusney-Chrish,  and  Ala-tau  mountains.  According  t(j  ^'on 
Helmerson,  the  geology  bore  a  striking  resemblance  to  that  of  the 
Ural.  Placers  were  first  discovered  on  the  western  slope,  and  here, 
as  in  the  Ural,  the  Crown  was  advised  to  make  its  locations,  throw- 
ing the  eastern  slope  open  to  miners.  It  was  the  eastern  slope  that 
proved  to  be  the  richer.      Humboldt,  35. 

A  year  or  two  later  another  auriferous  district  was  discovered  in 

the  Altai.      This  was  on  the  western  slopes  of  the  Kuznetsk  Ala-tau 

in  the  Salair  ridge,  a  northwestern  spur  of  the  Altai,  which  separates 

the  headwaters  of  the  Obi  and  Tomsk  rivers.    The  contribution  of  the 

Altai  to  the  metallic  produce  of  Russia  became  so  important  that  in 

ten  years'  time  the  produce  of  the  whole  empire  rose  from  300  to  600 

poods,  or  from   three  to  six   million  dollars  per  annum.      Taken  in 

connection  with  the  gold  yield  of  the  Appalachian  range  at  the  same 

period,  these  results  afforded  so  great  a  relief   to  the  commercial 

world,  that,  as  before  stated,  some  fears  of  its  being  "rather  too  much 

of  a  good  thing  "  began  to  be  put   forth  in  the  organs  of  financial 

"  The  English  translations  of  Humboldt's  "  Fluctations  of  Gold,"  and  Grimaudet's 
"Law  of  raymcnt,"  both  in  one  volume,  are  published  by  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia 
Company,  of  New  York. 


384  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

opinion,  until  Humboldt's  work  and   the  panic  of  1837  admonished 
these  tremblers  that  gold  had  not  quite  yet  become  worthless. 

The  Russian  government,  having  by  this  time  learnt  how  easy  it 
was  to  find  attractive  employment  for  its  idle  and  adventurous  classes, 
now  entered  upon  a  sort  of  Socialistic  experiment;  it  turned  its  at- 
tention to  the  discovery  and  development  of  gold  mines,  opening 
them  with  assisted  labourers  and  relinquishing  them  to  private  "en- 
terprise "  and  the  tax  gatherer  whenever  they  ceased  to  pay.  The 
experiment  pleased  many  parties  and  proved  to  be  quite  successful. 
It  found  employment  for  idle  peasants;  it  relieved  the  apprehensions- 
of  the  bourgeoisie;  it  developed  Siberia;  it  occupied  the  gamblers;  it 
increased  the  imperial  revenues;  it  rewarded  the  courtiers;  and  upon- 
the  coins  stamped  from  the  product  it  bore  the  arms  and  language 
of  Russia  to  the  most  distant  climes. 

The  auriferous  district,  which  next  engaged  the  interest  of  the  ad- 
ministration, was  situated  in  the  foot-hills  and  valleys  of  the  rivers 
which  rise  in  the  Tungousa  or  Tungusska  mountains,  and  flow  north- 
westward into  the  Yenesei;  this  last  being  the  Mississippi  River  of 
Central  Siberia.  The  Tungusska  range,  running  north  and  south 
with  numerous  lateral  spurs,  stretches  from  the  Sayan  range  (Mt. 
Goletz  is  in  the  vicinity  of  Lake  Baikal),  to  the  Northern  Ocean, 
separating  the  systems  of  the  Yenesei  and  Lena.  From  the  western 
spurs  of  the  Tungusska  range  flow  four  remarkable  rivers,  all  of 
which  empty  into  the  Yenesei.  Beginning  at  the  north,  these  are  the 
Nijni  (Lower)  Tungousa,  the  Podkamenaia  (Middle)  Tungousa,  the 
Pite,  or  Great  Pite,  and  the  Verknai  (Upper)  Tungousa.  Near  the 
source  of  the  Verknai,  and  close  to  Lake  Baikal,  stands  Irkoutsk: 
near  where  the  Verknai  empties  into  the  Yenesei,  stands  Yeneiseisk. 
The  auriferous  districts  north  of  the  Pite  were  called  the  Northern 
gold  regions;  those  south  of  it,  the  Southern.  The  latter,  discovered 
in  1838,  were  first  systematically  worked  in  1841 ;  the  former,  discov- 
ered in  1839,  were  first  worked  in  1845.  The  auriferous  strata  con- 
sisted of  brecciated  and  gravelly  detritus  from  the  mountains,  such 
detritus  varying  from  a  few  feet  to  upwards  of  150  feet  in  depth,  and 
containing  enough  gold  to  pay  at  first  for  hand-work,  next  for  rude 
machine  work,  and  finally  not  enough  to  pay  at  all.  The  detritus  was 
almost  invariably  topped  by  a  heavy  overlay  of  moss-covered  peat, 
usually  ten  to  twelve  feet  thick,  though  in  some  places  it  exceeds  fifty 
feet.  It  was  in  this  peat  and  the  frozen  tundra  northward  of  this 
region  that  were  found  those  remains  of  the  woolly  elephant,  the 
rhinoceros,  and  other  tropical  and  semi-tropical  animals,  which  to-day 


RUSSIA    AND    SIllKRIA.  385 

adorn  the  museums  of  St.  Petersburg  and  Copenhagen, and  excite  wiih- 
satisfying  our  curiosity,  concerning  the  antiiiuity  and  climatic  viccisi- 
tudes  of  our  planet." 

The  Yenesei  gold  regions  were  first  worked  by  the  government,  em- 
ploying convict  labour,  including  women  and  even  children.  This 
practically  meant  cruelty,  revolts,  desertions,  the  knout, and  the  steal- 
ing or  embezzlement  of  gold.  (Lock,  395-6.)  In  1847  this  system 
was  abandoned  and  the  mines  were  relinquished  to  private  inili- 
viduals,  usually  court  favourites,  who  were,  nevertheless,  required  to 
pay  a  heavy  ta.x  on  the  produce.  Owing  to  the  systematic  evasion  of 
this  tax,  the  government,  in  1850,  resumed  control  of  the  mines.  In 
1S53,  due  to  a  falling  off  in  the  returns,  it  again  abandoned  the  mines 
to  "private  enterprise."  "  a  system,  which,  combined  with  police 
lettres  de  cachet  and  the  hiring  of  convict  labour,  increased  for  a 
time  the  productiveness  of  the  mines.  Under  this  system,  for  which 
the  courtiers  rather  than  the  government  must  be  held  responsible, 
the  cost  to  Russia  of  the  806,630  pounds  of  gold  obtained  from  the 
Yenesei  region  during  the  forty  years,  1834-74,  may  be  briefly  summed 
up  as  follows:  Twenty  thousand  Russian  lives,  consigned  to  exile, 
neglect  and  oblivion:  plus  the  trifling  cost  of  keeping  these  unhappy 
creatures  alive  until  they  were  worn  out.  The  entire  quantity  of  al- 
luvium and  detritus  washed  was  130  million  tons.  The  average  value 
of  the  gravel  was  about  12  cents  (6d.  sterling)  per  ton.  There  are 
hundreds  of  square  miles  of  far  richer  gravel  in  California,  which  has 
never  been  worked  and  which  can  be  had  to-day  for  the  asking,  but 
from  which  American  labourers  turn  with  disdain.  This  computation 
may  serve  to  measure  the  difference  between  a  free  man's  ration  and  the 
meagre  one  upon  which  the  Russian  convicts  were  condemned  to  die. 

After  1846  the  productiveness  of  the  Yenesei  region  declined.  At 
that  period  the  annual  produce  of  the  district  was  about  40,000  pounds 
weight  of  gold,  employing  25,000  labourers.  In  1S74,  13,000  labour- 
ers produced   12.000  pounds  of  gold.      In   1S94  the  average  annual 

"  The  organic  remains  are  mostly  those  of  the  mammoth.  By  the  year  1S40  more 
than  2,(x>o  of  these  animals  had  been  founii;  at  the  present  time  the  finds  are  e.xceed- 
inj^Iy  numerous.  .Some  with  portions  of  their  bodies  still  soft  were  discovered  by  the 
miners  in  the  frozen  tundras.  Remains  of  the  woolly  rhinoceros  (A'/iinniirus  tit  hor- 
itius)  are  also  frequently  encountered.  As  all  these  animals  reijuired  abundant  ve;,'eta- 
tion,  the  present  treeless  state  of  the  tundras  and  the  long  intervening  glacial  period 
indicate  for  them  an  age  far  more  remote  than  is  covered  by  our  cosmogony.  Human 
remains  were  found  in  iS^)0  in  the  Chtogolcf  mine  at  a  depth  of  ten  feet.  Ancient 
hearths  have  also  been  found  ;  and  a  stone  slab  with  inscriptions  in  a  mine  in  the  basin 
of  the  Kigas.  .\11  these  last  may  have  been  the  remains  of  very  ancient  miners.  Init  not 
necessarily,  of  a  former  geological  period.   Cf.  U.  S.  Consular  Reports,  October,  ii)«>o. 

'*  Among  the  principal  grantees  were  ladies  of  the  court  :  I'rincess  .Madatova.  Prin- 
cess GortchakofT.  Troubetskov.  Patkul,  Maksimovitch,  Madame  Kodstvennaia,  etc. 


386  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

yield  of  each  labourer  was  less  than  three-fourths  of  a  pound  weight 
of  gold.  From  this  the  government  exacted  about  one-fourth  in 
production  taxes,  seigniorages  and  other  charges;  while,  after  "  pay- 
ing "  the  labourers,  the  proprietors  of  the  mines  and  the  vodka  dis- 
tillers, are  described  as  living  in  luxury.  The  word  pay  in  Eastern 
Siberia  must  have  an  entirely  local  meaning. 

The  history  of  the  Atchinsk  and  Minusinsk  gold  districts  is  that  of 
the  Yenesei  on  a  small  scale.  They  lie  in  the  foothills  and  valleys 
of  the  Sayan  range  and  were  discovered  and  first  worked  in  1835. 
During  the  Fifties  they  employed  20,000  labourers;  in  1874  only  5,000. 
During  the  forty  years  between  these  dates  they  produced  75,000 
pounds  weight  of  gold,  from  30  million  tons  weight  of  gravel  washed. 

The  Olekminsk  district  has  a  similar  history.  It  lies  from  60  to  75 
miles  north  of  Nertchinsk,  in  the  basins  of  the  Vitim  and  Oletma, 
streams  that  empty  into  the  Lena.  Between  1849  ^^^  1874  this  dis- 
trict employed  about  5,000  to  6,000  labourers,  who,  from  22  million 
tons  of  gravel  obtained  245,000  pounds  weight  of  gold.  In  the  year 
1874  the  produce  was  22,252  pounds  weight  of  gold;  in  1877  this  rose 
to  37,120  pounds  (928  poods),  with  15,000  labourers;  down  to  1880 
the  total  yield  from  the  outset  was  416,206  pounds  weight.  At  the 
present  writing  (1900)  these  placers  are  declining;  nevertheless,  Olek- 
minsk remains  easily  the  richest  and  most  productive  gold  district  in 
Siberia.  It  is  surprising  that  though  so  near  Nertchinsk,  which  was. 
opened  in  1704,  the  Olekminsk  deposits  remained  for  nearly  a  cen- 
tury and  a-half  unknown.  This  is  attributed  to  the  circumstance  that 
the  auriferous  strata  lay  buried  beneath  a  heavy  covering  of  peat, 
through  which  there  was  no  occasion  to  dig.  The  mode  of  working 
the  tundra  placers  is  similar  to  that  which  is  practised  in  Alaska: 
thawing  the  ground,  sinking,  drifting,  hoisting,  and  washing  in  sluice- 
boxes,  or  else  barrel-machines,  together  with  mercury-amalgamation 
and  blankets."^ 

The  basin  of  the  Amur,  from  the  vicinity  of  Nertchinsk  through 

Chinese  (now  Russian)  Mantchuria  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  was  explored 

in  1832,  but  until  1849  the  mining  operations  were  few  and  unimpor. 

tant.    In  the  year  last  named  a  more  systematic  exploration  was  made 

by  government  mining  engineers,  who  reported  the  region  as  being 

highly  auriferous;  when  operations  on  a  larger  scale  were  begun.   The 

'=  "  It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  gold  mining  in  Siberia  has  left  behind  it  not  the  least 
trace  of  civilization,  the  sites  of  the  abandoned  diggings  present  nothing  but  howling 
wildernesses,  and  there  is  not  a  sign  of  a  habitation.  In  the  towns  it  has  left  no  memo- 
rials except  ruined  pleasure  gardens,  in  which  the  miners  used  to  drink  away  their 
earnings;  and  the  laments  of  proprietors,  the  latter  totally  bankrupt  and  begging  almost 
for  bread." — London  Mining  Journal. 


RUSSIA    AND    SIBERIA.  387 

full  development  of  the  region,  however,  awaited  the  acquisition  and 
organization  of  such  resources  as  were  deemed  needful  to  success- 
fully accomplish  this  object.  These  embraced  the  possession  of 
northern  Mantchuria  and  the  extension  of  Russian  military  posts  east- 
ward from  the  Nertchinsk  region  to  the  ocean.  This  time  the  out- 
lawed (not  necessarily  the  criminal)  classes  led  the  way.  The  discov- 
er)' of  gold  in  California,  and  the  knowledge  that  under  the  American 
government  there  was  freedom  for  the  refugee  and  immediate  em- 
ployment and  reward  for  the  labourer,  floated  many  a  fugitive  canoe 
down  the  Amur  in  the  vain  hope  to  reach  the  Aleutian  Islands  and 
the  ships  of  the  fur-dealers  who  traded  with  San  Francisco.  When- 
ever the  adventurers  succeeded  in  escaping  the  double  vigilance  of 
the  Russian  and  Chinese  authorities,  they  commonly  took  refuge  with 
the  Humaris  and  Chiliaks,  whose  solitudes  they  roamed  in  search  of 
food  and  gold.  Few  or  none  reached  the  ocean.  It  was  the  researches 
of  these  outlawed  prospectors  that  confirmed  the  conjectures  of  the 
Russian  mining  engineers  and  stimulated  the  Russian  government  to 
acquire,  in  1854,  that  large  portion  of  Mantchuria  which  lay  north  of 
the  Amur.  In  1857-64  (Anasof),  and  in  1870  (Boguliubsky),  this  re- 
gion was  again  and  again  examined  by  mining  engineers  for  the  Rus- 
sian government.  Meanwhile,  in  1866,  prospecting  by  private  indi- 
viduals was  permitted  by  the  authorities,  and  in  1868  the  Upper  Amur 
Company  commenced  systematic  operations.  The  detritus  of  the 
Amur  region  is  usually  about  18  feet  thick,  with  an  equal  overlayof 
peat  and  a  light  vegetable  mould  on  top.  From  1832  to  1850  about 
9,000  pounds  weight  of  gold  were  secured  by  all  the  miners  of  the 
Nertchinsk  circuit  (estates  of  the  czar),  who  made  returns  to  the 
government.  From  185 1  to  1874  the  returns  amounted  to  97,500  lbs. 
weight;  altogether  106,560  lbs.  of  schlichs  gold  from  i6_;2  million 
tons  of  gravels  washed.  This  is  equal  to  about  $1.25  per  ton:  far 
richer  gravel  than  what  is  now  washed.  From  private  estates  the  re- 
turns were  48,054  lbs.  ;  from  the  Amur  district  proper,  34,500  lbs. ; 
from  the  sea  coast  district,  400  lbs;  altogether,  189,514  lbs.  of 
schlichs  gold."  The  subsequent  returns  are  included  in  the  general 
Table  of  Production  printed  elsewhere.  It  may  be  stated  compre- 
hensively that  of  the  whole  amount  of  gold  produced  in  the  Russian 
empire  from  1814  to  1880  the  Ural  contributed  27.6  per  cent.,  West- 
ern Siberia,  6.4  percent. ;  Finland,  o.  i  percent. ;  and  Eastern  Siberia, 
66  per  cent.,  and  that  at  the  present  time  Eastern  Siberia  contributes 

'*  Schlichs  is  impure  gold,  just  as  it  is  found  in  the  mines.    It  commonly  runs  about 
0.8S8  tine.     .\  Russian  pound  will  coin  into  about  $250,  or  a  pood  into  $10,000. 


3S8  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

more  than  80  per  cent,  of  the  entire  auriferous  produce  of  the  Rus- 
sian empire. 

Turning  for  a  moment  from  gold  to  silver,  it  may  be  said  in  a  few 
words  that  the  silver  produce  of  Russia  has  been  small  and  singul- 
arly uniform.  From  1830  to  1846  inclusive,  the  produce  only  varied 
between  1,300  and  1,200  poods  per  annum;  from  1847  to  1868,  be- 
tween 1,200  and  1,000  poods  and  from  1869  to  the  present  time,  be- 
tween 1,000  and  600  poods:  not  enough  to  make  good  the  wear  and 
tear  of  silver  coins  in  the  empire.  In  order  to  keep  up  her  old  and 
worn  silver  coinage  and  acquire  the  metal  for  such  additional  coinage 
as  the  growing  population  and  expanding  commerce  of  the  empire  de- 
manded, Russia  has  had  to  import  large  quantities  of  silver.  It  has 
become  the  permanent  policy  of  the  government  to  sell  its  surplus 
gold  and  with  the  proceeds  to  purchase  silver.  A  glance  at  any  table 
of  Russian  commerce  will  show  that  this  movement  has  been  going 
on  for  half  a  century.  For  example,  in  the  year  1896  Russia  pur- 
chased the  silver  for,  and  caused  to  be  struck  at  the  Mint  of  Paris, 
no  less  than  40  million  roubles  in  pieces  of  whole  roubles,  half-roubles 
and  quarter-roubles.  It  is  obviously  the  interesc  of  Russia  to  pur- 
chase the  silver  needed  for  her  coinages  at  as  low  a  price  as  possible. 
Therefore,  to  permit  her  delegates  to  vote  upon  the  proposal  to  de- 
monetise one  of  the  precious  metals,  so  that  the  other  might  be  pur- 
chased at  half  price,  as  was  done  at  International  MonetaryCongresses, 
may  have  been  an  act  of  courtesy,  but  was  hardly  one  of  policy.  It 
has  cost  the  silver-producing  states,  represented  in  those  Congresses, 
one-half  the  value  of  their  entire  silver  product:  nearly  the  whole  of 
which  has  been  gained  by  Russia  and  British  India." 

It  is  now  time  to  tabulate  the  returns  of  gold-mining  in  Russia. 
According  to  Jacob,  the  whole  amount  of  gold  obtained  from  the 
mines  of  the  Russian  empire  from  1704  to  1810  was  1,726  poods,  which, 
assuming  it  to  have  been  "  schlichs  "  or  unrefined  gold,  amounted  in 
value  to  about  $17,260,000.  From  181 1  to  a  very  recent  date,  we 
have  the  following  returns  from  Russian  official  sources. 

"  Now  that  the  subject  is  politically  dead,  and  the  disclosure  can  only  be  of  interest 
in  future  movements  of  like  nature,  it  may  as  well  be  stated  in  this  place  that  Mr. 
Samuel  B.  Ruggles,  who  misled  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and  Senator 
John  Sherman,  who  misled  the  United  States  Senate,  were  themselves  the  dupes  of  the 
far  cleverer  men  who  sustained  and  managed  the  Conventions  of  the  Latin  Monetary 
Union,  at  Paris.  Among  these  were  Artur  Raffalovich,  who  represented  the  silver 
requirements  of  Russia,  and  Charles  Rivers  \Vilson  and  Charles  Fremantle,  who  re- 
presented those  of  British  India.  The  two  gentlemen  last  named,  in  recognition  of- 
the  part  they  took  in  these  intrigues,  were  rewarded  with  titles  of  honour.  It  is  not 
known  in  what,  manner  Mr.  Raffalovich  has  been  rewarded  for  his  services  to  the  Rus- 
sian government. 


RL'SSIA     AND    SIBKRIA 


Genera!  'J'abL-  of  the  Production  of  Gold  in  Russia,  {^fidichs,  or  unrefined  gold,  about 
eight-ninths  fine,  -oorth  about  $  t^oo^  per  pood.)     Fractions  of  poods  omitted. 


Year. 

Poods. 

Year. 

Poods, 

Year. 

Poods. 

Year. 

Poods. 

1704 

) 

1831 

402 

1S54 

1.597 

1S77 

2,502 

to 

•1.7=6 

32 

423 

5S 

1.649 

73 

2,572 

iSlo 

\ 

33 

410 

56 

1.635 

99 

2,632 

II 

16 

34 

405 

57 

1.734 

18S0 

2,642 

12 

15 

35 

393 

58 

1,711 

81 

2,444 

13 

15 

36 

406 

59 

1.539 

82 

2,207 

14 

16 

37 

443 

iSfX) 

■^1.491 

83 

2.1S3 

i^ 

14 

33 

443 

Ci 

■  ^1.456 

84 

2,178 

16 

16 

39 

496 

62 

1,461 

85 

2,016 

17 

iS 

1840 

45S 

63 

1.459 

86 

2,042 

18 

17 

41 

646 

64 

1,398 

87 

2,123 

19 

14 

42 

909 

Cs, 

•-I.584 

88 

2,147 

1820 

20 

43 

1,241 

66 

1,659 

89 

2,274 

21 

28 

44 

I.2S0 

67 

1,650 

1890 

2.404 

22 

54 

45 

1.307 

63 

1. 711 

91 

is,3S6 

23 

106 

46 

1,612 

60 

2,007 

92 

2,625 

24 

206 

47 

1.757 

1S70 

2.157   « 

93 

2.739 

25 

237 

48 

1.6S5 

71 

2,400 

94 

2,622 

26 

231 

49 

1.5S9 

72 

2.331 

95 

2,510 

27 

2S2 

1850 

1,454 

73 

2,025 

96 

2,272 

28 

291 

51 

1.474 

74 

2,027 

97 

2,326 

29 

290 

52 

i.3f'7 

75 

1,929 

98 

2,346 

1830 

383 

53 

1.464 

76 

2,055 

1S99 

2,291 

It  was  not  until  after  the  year  1842  that  the  annual  produce  of  gold 
reached  a  thousand  poods  or  ten  million  dollars.  Then  ensued  what 
Shuroffsky  and  other  writers  termed  the  Gold  Mania.  Burghers  and 
aristocrats  tumbled  over  one  another  to  secure  mines  and  mining 
privileges.  In  1S45  the  produce  rose  to  thirteen  millions.  As  the 
currency  of  Russia  then  consisted  almost  entirely  of  paper  notes,  all 
this  gold  went  abroad,  carrying  alarm  wherever  it  went,  to  the  con- 
servative classes,  who  saw  in  its  ample  production  a  rise  of  prices  and 
ruin  to  their  vested  interests.  In  Holland  the  necessity  of  couching 
all  contracts  in  silver  florins  was  openly  discussed.  It  had  become 
evident  that  the  world  was  about  to  be  "  deluged  "  with  a  metal  which 
would  soon  become  "worthless,"  because  it  was  becoming  plentiful. 
Financiers  and  politicians  forgot  all  about  the  cost  of  production 
theory,  or,  if  reminded  of  it,  they  declared  it  was  false."  The  yellow 
metal  was  only  fit  for  gold-beaters  and  jewelers.  Money  to  be  "  honest" 
should  only  be  made  of  silver.  These  views,  repeated  throughout  Eu- 
rope, resulted  in  a  panic,  to  allay  which  it  was  everywhere  proposed 
to  demonetise  gold.  This  was  actually  affected  by  the  Netherlands 
Mint  Acts  of  September  26th,  1847,  and  June  23rd,  1850,  whereby 

'*  •  It  is  the  cardinal  rule  of  commerce  that  quantity  governs  price.  .  .  .  There 
must  be  a  fall  in  the  value  of  gold  in  consequence  of  its  greatly  increased  quantity." 
Cobden's  Introduction  to  Chevalier's  "  Fall  of  Gold."  It  is  a  misfortune  that  such 
gleams  of  wisdom  only  appear  at  those  distant  intervals  when  the  pockets  of  the  rich 
are  threatened! 


390  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

the  silver  florin,  reduced  to  145.85  grains  fine,  was  declared  the  sole 
legal  tender,  and  the  gold  coins  were  demonetised,  melted  down  and 
sold  at  a  loss  of  ten  million  florins.  Belgium  soon  afterward  followed 
suit.      Chevalier;  Tooke;  Vrolik. 

In  1847  a  run  occurred  on  the  Bank  of  England,  numerous  failures 
followed,  and  on  the  25th  of  October  the  Bank  obtained  leave  from 
the  Government  to  suspend  coin  payments.  In  England  the  crisis 
was  ascribed  to  speculation;  on  the  Continent  it  was  imputed  to  be 
the  over-production  of  Russian  gold.  In  the  following  year  the  Bank 
of  Austria  stopped  payment,  and  numerous  provincial  banks  failed 
in  England.  These  events  were  also  attributed  to  the  Russian  gold. 
Still  the  tundras  went  on  yielding  up  more  and  more  of  the  despised 
metal.  In  the  two  years,  1847  ^I'ld  1848,  they  furnished  over  thirty- 
four  million  dollars  worth  of  new  gold.  When  to  this  unprecedented 
and  alarming  supply  California  began,  in  1849,  ^^  throw  its  auriferous 
treasures  upon  the  world,  the  Gold  Panic  reached  its  height.  Hol- 
land and  Belgium  had  demonetised  gold.  Chevalier  advised  the 
government  of  France  to  demonetise  it ;  Maclaren  advised  the  British 
life  assurance  companies  to  adopt  a  "  silver  standard  ";  while  Cobden 
thought  it  might  be  necessary  to  revert  to  corn-rents  and  even  to  the 
primitive  practice  of  "paying  in  kind  I"  Cobden's  Introduction  to 
Chevalier's  "Fall  of  Gold,"  p.  ix. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  the  history  of  this  unreasonable  alarm 
any  further.  Everybody  knows  what  happened.  It  is  true  that  gold 
became  more  and  more  plentiful;  it  is  true  that  prices  rose;  but  it  is  not 
true  that  anybody  suffered  from  these  occurrences:  on  the  contrary, 
they  inaugurated  a  period  of  unprecedented  prosperity  all  over  the 
commercial  world — a  prosperity  that  was  only  checked  when  the  same 
shortsightedness  deduced  from  the  exuberance  of  the  Comstock  Lode 
a  new  and  pressing  reason  for  demonetising  the  other  precious  metal. 

In  1869  the  produce  of  the  Russian  gold  mines  rose  to  20  million 
dollars,  and  in  1877  to  25  millions,  at  or  about  which  figure  it  has 
since  remained  constant,  varying  from  27  millions  in  1873  ^^  about 
23  millions  at  the  present  time:  a  constancy  which  is  due  less  to  any 
natural  influences,  such  as  the  supply  of  water  for  washing  the  auri- 
ferous gravel,  than  to  the  restrictions  imposed  by  taxation. 

The  tax  on  the  produce  of  the  mines  and  the  other  mining  regula- 
tions of  the  Russian  government,  though  deemed  onerous  and  vexr 
atious  by  the  miners,  are  imposed  with  no  oppressive  or  illiberal  pur- 
pose. They  are  designed  first  to  afford  the  State  some  return  for 
yielding  up  its  domains  to  private  spoliation;  to  afford  the  State  a 


RUSSIA     AND    SIIUKIA.  39I 

revenue;  and  to  keep  the  production  of  the  precious  metals  within 
such  prudent  limits  as  shall  not  oblige  the  State  upon  a  future  occa- 
sion to  depend  upon  commerce  or  foreign  caprice  for  a  supply  of  the 
materials  of  coinage.  It  must  be  remembered  in  this  connection 
that  Russia  is  not  a  new  State.  It  is  the  successor  of  the  Byzantine 
Empire  antl  many  of  its  governmental  arrangements,  among  them  its 
mining  laws,  are  drawn  from  the  great  e.xperience  of  its  illustrious 
predecessor. 

The  oldest  nations  of  the  world  deemed  it  expedient  and  just  to 
claim  in  the  form  of  ta.xation,  a  portion  of  the  miners'  produce. 
Though  the  surface  of  the  land  for  agricultural,  building,  and  traffic 
purposes  might  equitably  become  the  property  of  private  individuals, 
there  could  be  no  such  basis  for  the  claim  of  individual  owners  to  the 
earth  beneath,  least  of  all  in  respect  to  the  monopoly  of  those  min- 
erals, which,  like  the  precious  metals  or  coals,  were  the  necessary  in- 
strumentalities of  communal  life.  India,  China,  Persia,  Babylon, 
Syria,  Egypt,  Greece  and  Rome  successively  ta.xed  the  produce  of  the 
precious  metals,  some  to  the  e.xtent  of  one-half,  one-third,  or  one- 
quarter,  but  finally  and  generally  to  the  extent  of  one-fifth,  a  tax  in 
every  age  lighter  than  that  which  was  imposed  upon  the  produce  of 
agriculture. 

The  tax  of  one-fifth,  or  the  Quinto,  as  laid  down  in  the  Koran, 
eventually  became  the  rule  to  the  States  which  threw  open  the  great 
mineral  resources  of  the  Indies.  Ixnh  East  and  West.  This  was  the 
proportion  levied  by  Spain,  Portugal  and  e\  en  England,  until  the  de- 
cline of  slavery,  the  diminished  profits  of  mining  and  the  clamours 
of  the  mine  proprietors,  compelled  it  to  be  reduced  to  one-tenth,  and 
lastly  to  one-twentieth.  The  American  revolutions  abolished  the  pro- 
duction tax  altogether,  because  it  had  been  levied  by  distant  govern- 
ments and  presumably  for  the  benefit  of  needy  monarchs  and  rapa- 
cious revenue  farmers.  But  now  that  it  concerns  the  welfare  of  the 
American  governments  themselves,  it  may  not  be  deemed  out  of 
place  to  calmly  study  the  working  of  this  impost  as  levied  by  the 
government  of  one  of  the  most  modern,  and  yet  in  certain  aspects  one 
of  the  most  ancient.  States  now  in  existence. 

Originally  the  mines  were  regarded  as  Crown  property.  In  i  745  all 
of  them  were  worked  by  the  government  for  its  own  benefit.  Under 
the  Empress  Anna  (1730-40)  a  more  liberal  policy  was  adopted.  By 
the  Ukase  of  1812.  which  went  into  effect  in  1S19,  a  portion  of  the 
mining  lands  were  let  to  private  individuals  upon  part  produce;  the 
government  retaining  and  working  the  remainder.      The  proportion 


392  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

required  to  be  paid  by  lessees  was  one-tentli  of  production  and  about 
2^  per  cent,  for  police  duty  and  other  charges. 

The  Crown  mines  were  formerly  worked  chiefly  by  convicts  or 
exiles;  a  few  by  paid  labourers  :  both  under  supervision.  A  suspicious 
decrease  in  the  produce  of  the  Miask  placers,  about  1823,  induced  the 
government  to  permit  the  paid  labourers  to  work  them  as  they  pleased, 
and  without  supervision,  rewarding  them  with  a  small  per  centage  of 
the  product;  but  although  this  greatly  increased  the  produce,  it  re- 
sulted in  the  gravel  mines  being  worked  unskilfully  and  in  some  cases 
practically  ruined. 

At  this  period,  1826,  it  was  urged  (it  is  believed  by  Count  Cancrin, 
the  Minister  of  Finance),  that  the  government  policy  of  keeping  con- 
trol, by  limiting  the  lessees,  of  the  mines,  though  sanctioned  by  an- 
tiquity and  religiously  observed  by  the  Chinese  and  some  other  na- 
tions, was  unwise;  that  the  placers  of  Siberia  had  been  formed  by 
natural  agencies,  which  were  still  at  work;  and  therefore  that  the 
government  should  acquire  all  the  gold  it  could,  by  permitting  the 
mines  to  be  exploited  at  once,  because  as  time  went  on  these  natural 
agencies  would  furnish  fresh  supplies!  Perhaps  owing  to  financial 
necessity  this  fantastic  argument  prevailed,  and  permission  was  ac- 
corded to  every  Russian  subject,  recommended  by  the  Minister  of 
Finance,  to  prospect  for  gold.  By  the  year  1838  there  were  issued 
200  such  permits.  The  concessionaires  were  taxed  5  to  35  per  cent., 
an  average  of  about  15  per  cent,  on  the  produce,  plus  about  i^  per 
cent,  for  police  duty,  besides  charges  for  smelting  and  for  transport- 
ing the  metal  to  St.  Petersburg,  where  all  the  produce  had  to  be  sent 
for  coinage.'^ 

In  1840,  after  the  opening  of  the  Yenesei  placers,  the  latter  were 
taxed  24  per  cent,  on  the  produce,  while  all  other  mines  in  Siberia 
were  taxed  20  per  cent.,  besides  the  other  charges  above  mentioned. 
In  1843  the  mines  in  one  of  the  Irkutsk  districts  were  taxed  30  per 
cent,  on  production.  In  some  cases  the  police  duty  was  raised  from 
\y^^  to  2}^  per  cent.  In  1847,  during  the  halcyon  period  of  the  Si- 
berian placers,  some  individuals  offered  the  government  50  percent, 
on  production  for  permission  to  drift  for  gold.^"  Although  the  offer 
was  not  accepted,  it  led,  April  14,  1849,  to  the  imposition  of  higher 

"  At  the  present  time  all  the  gold  extracted  is  required  to  be  sent  to  the  smelting 
houses  at  Ekaterinburg  (Ural),  Tomsk  (Western  Siberia),  or  Irkutsk  (Eastern  Siberia), 
for  refining,  and  afterwards  to  St.  Petersburg  for  coinage;  the  entire  charge  of  the 
double  transportation  and  for  refining  and  coining  is  required  to  be  defrayed  by  the' 
owner  of  the  bullion. 

-°  Among  the  wonders  of  Russian  mining  was  the  invention  of  Poetsch,  in  1883. 
Some  of  the  tundras  were  in  loose  quicksand,  difficult  and  expensive  to  timber  and 


RUSSIA     AND    SlIU  klA.  393 

taxes  on  the  more  profitable  and  to  lower  taxes  on  the  least  profitable 
mines.  The  scale  of  imposts  is  too  com[)lex  to  find  place  in  this 
work.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  it  averaged  over  25  per  cent,  on  j^rodiic- 
tion  and  still  further  increased  the  government  revenues  frt^m  this 
source.  The  tax  may  be  taken  to  have  averaged  on  the  whole  about 
one-third  of  the  produce.    Leon  Faucher;  Roscher;  Chevalier. 

In  iS54(.\ug.  4,)  it  having  been  found  that  many  of  the  mines  which 
had  formerly  been  justly  classed  as  most  productive,  were  so  no  longer, 
that  the  tax  was  oppressive  and  deterrent. and  that  the  revenues,  which 
in  1 85 1  were  over  three  million  roubles,  had  fallen  to  2.4  millions  in 
1853,  the  scale  of  taxation  was  raised;  with  the  result  that  prcnluction 
increased,  while  the  revenues  rose,  in  1855,  to  2.7  millions;  1S56,  to 
2.9  millions;  and  1857  to  nearly  3 ':(  million  roubles. 

In  1858  (April  14),  a  graduated  tax,  which  amounted  to  from  15  to 
33  percent,  on  production,  was  substituted  for  tiie  previous  scale  ;  and 
with  small  exception,  thisapplied  to  all  leased  mining  property,  whether 
in  Siberia  or  elsewhere.  "  Summarising  the  whole  peritnl  from  18 12 
to  1847  Boguliubsky  estimated  that  one-fifth  of  the  gold  raised  be- 
longed to  the  State,  and  four-fifths  to  individuals,  ...  so  that 
32  per  cent,  of  the  production  fell  to  the  share  of  the  government." 
Lock,  436. 

If  we  may  safely  apply  these  proportions  to  the  product  down  to 
the  present  time,  it  would  appear  that  the  Russian  government  has 
derived  from  the  gold  mines  no  less  a  sum  than  450  million  dollars, 
or  nearly  one  hundred  millions  sterling.  Other  modifications  of  the 
mining  taxes  were  made  in  1876, effective  from  January  i,  1877;  also 
in  1880.  In  the  year  last  named  the  duty  levied  on  Miask  gold  was 
20  per  cent.  (Lock,  371.)  Still  other  modifications  were  made  in  the 
laws  of  1893.  These  are  exceedingly  complex.  They  include  per- 
mits, passports,  police  supervision,  fees  of  various  kinds,  taxes  vary- 
ing from  3  to  10  per  cent  on  the  produce  of  mines  in  freehold  and 
imperial  demains,  and  5  to  15  per  cent,  on  the  produce  of  Crown 
lands;  besides  land  taxes,  a  smelting  tax  of  3  to  5  per  cent.,  trans- 
portation,and  many  other  charges.    Report  U.S.  Mint,  1S99, pp. 344-5. 

Rapacious  foreigners,  anxious  to  exploit  the  Siberian  tundras  with 
steam  dredgers  and  electrical  appliances,  may  view  these  various  reg- 

dangerous  to  the  miner.  By  causing  a  current  of  cold  brine  to  pass  through  a  series 
of  buried  pipes,  I'octsch  froze  the  quicksands  and  rendered  them  hard  enough  to  bs 
excavated  with  safety.  The  proprietors  of  the  C'ourrierres  Mines  published  a  formula 
and  tables  which  enabled  the  safe  thickness  of  frozen  wall  to  be  computcii  for  round 
or  square  shafts  of  any  dimensions.  This  appliance  has  been  used  for  the  canal-lift 
at  Lcs  Fontinettes  and  the  construction  of  a  tunnel  at  Stockholm. 


394  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS 

ulations  with  contempt  or  derision:  yet  they  are  evidently  the  result 
of  careful  deliberation  and  an  attentive  consideration  to  the  welfare 
of  a  great  empire.  It  is  not  the  writer's  office  either  to  recommend 
or  deride  them.  Since  the  exchanges  of  the  commercial  world  have 
now  been  made  to  rest  entirely  upon  coins  of  a  single  metal,  the  mag- 
nitude of  this  subject  is  being  perceived  more  and  more  clearly  every 
day;  and  it  must  soon  demand  the  very  serious  consideration  of 
thoughtful  men  in  every  country.  Among  others,  it  proposes  these 
questions :  Shall  the  raising  of  gold,  the  exhaustion  of  mines,  the  coin- 
age of  gold,  and  the  melting  down  and  exportation  of  gold  coins  be 
left,  as  now,  in  America,  practicall}'  without  taxation  or  restraint, 
or  shall  they  be  as  in  Russia,  subject  to  the  regulation  of  govern- 
ment? Shall  the  mines  belonging  to  the  public  domain  be  worked 
gradually  and  systematically,  or  shall  they  be  exploited  as  rapidly  as 
ingenuity  can  invent  the  necessary  mechanical  and  metallurgical  ap- 
pliances? Have  we  a  moral  right  to  exhaust  the  supplies  of  a  material, 
whether  it  be  gold  or  silver,  which  Nature  produces  but  once;  but 
which  posterity  may  need  always? 

Said  Aristotle:  The  growth  of  society  is  impossible  without  ex- 
change, while  the  development  of  exchange  is  impossible  without 
money.  These  views  were  repeated  by  Paulus;  they  are  embalmed 
in  the  Civil  Law;  they  were  enunciated  from  the  Bench  in  the  cele- 
brated case  of  the  Mixt  Moneys;  finally,  they  have  been  carefully 
analysed  and  fully  elucidated  by  Frederick  Bastiat,  Destutt  Tracy, 
and  other  philosophers  and  statesmen ;  all  of  whom  have  declared  them 
sound  and  unimpugnable.  If  money  must  continue  to  be  made  of  gold, 
it  certainly  becomes  a  very  grave  question  whether  or  not  we  have  the 
right  to  exploit  it,  and  leave  the  world,  as  the  Romans  left  it  eighteen 
centuries  ago,  to  Decay  and  to  Dark  Ages.  And  when  these  questions 
come  to  be  answered,  the  example  of  Russia  in  taxing  and  restricting 
the  produce  of  the  mines  may  not  be  without  its  practical  value. 


RUSSIA    AND    SIBERIA.  395 


GOLD  STEALING. 

"  Gold  stealing  is  a  prosperous  business  in  Siberia.  It  can  hardly  be 
called  mere  stealing,  for  it  is  conducted  on  such  a  large  scale,  so 
manv  men  are  engaged  in  it,  it  is  so  well  organized  and  jiays  so  well, 
that  it  fully  deserves  the  name  of  an  industry.  True,  the  industry  is 
not  recognized  by  law;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  harshly  punished  when 
discovered.  Discovered  ?  ]5ut  that  is  where  all  the  difficulty  lies.  It 
is  not  easy  to  discover  a  new  and  unknown  thing,  but  to  discover 
what  is  known  to  every  gold  miner,  to  every  proprietor  of  gold  mines, 
to  thousands  of  secret  gold  agents  and  to  the  czar's  authorities,  is  ex- 
ceedingly difficult,  if  it  be  possible  at  all.  Here  is  room  for  another 
Columbus,  but  then  he  must  be  ready  for  CoUmibus'  fate. 

With  the  beginning  of  summer,  when  the  work  in  the  gold  mines 
becomes  lively,  secret  agents  appear  in  the  woods  all  around  for  miles. 
Thev  set  up  their  camps  and  open  business,  which  lasts  till  the  end 
of  the  gold  season.  .-Kt  night  a  bright  torch  is  seen  on  some  hill  and 
the  gold  miners  understand  the  signal.  With  their  gold  dust  they  go 
to  the  camps  in  the  woods  and  then  begins  a  lively  trade.  The  miners 
get  vodka,  provisions,  or  clothes,  but  chiefly  vodka,  and  return  to  the 
mines.    There  follows  in  the  miners'  barracks  an  indescribable  frolic. 

Now,  is  such  a  transaction  secret  ?  Far  from  it.  The  guards  were 
aware  of  it,  but  they  remained  silent,  for  they  had  their  portion  of  the 
vodka  and  their  share  of  the  golden  booty.  It  would  be  unjust. how- 
ever, to  say  of  the  officers  that  they,  too,  take  part  in  tliis  retail  busi- 
ness. No,  no.  As  to  the  wholesale — well,  we  had  better  recollect  that 
though  speech  may  be  silver,  silence  is  golden. 

The  gold  miners  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  steal  gold.  Their 
wages  are  ridiculously  small.  They  get  from  $25  to  $100  for  a  season, 
which  lasts  nearly  half  a  year.  They  are  kejH  in  wretched  barracks, 
destitute  of  every  sort  of  comfort.  Their  food  is  bad,  even  in  the 
moujiks'  opinion.  If  one  of  them  wants  something  e.vtra  in  the  way 
of  provisions,  tools,  clothes  or  vodka,  he  may  get  it  at  the  store  of  the 
gold  mine  jiroprietor,  the  only  store  within  reach  of  the  labourers,  and 
in  that  store  the  goods  are  usually  sold  at  treble  theonlinary  prices. 
During  the  working  season  the  miners  remain  in  a  state  of  slavkrv. 
They  can  be  fined,  flogged  and  even  im|)risoned  by  their  employer 
with  impunity.  In  order  to  save  their  wages  they  steal  gold,  and  thus 
procure  voilka  and  provisions. 

The  numberof  secret  gold  agents  is  legion,  and  they  are  excellently 
organized.  There  are  the  militant  agents,  armed  to  the  teeth,  who 
deal  directly  with  the  miners.  There  are  the  protectors,  the  sjiies, 
the  station-keepers,  the  postmen  and  the  foreign  agents.  They  have 
their  own  secret  routes  through  the  czar's  empire, and  speak  their  own 
jargon.    'Grits,'  for  instaiue.  means  gold-dust;    '  to  reap'  means  to 


396  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

go  for  gold;  'to  make  pilgrimage  to  St.  Innocent,'  means  to  go  to 
Irkutsk,  in  order  to  give  gold  to  Chinese  merchants  for  tea. 

When  the  gold  season  opens  the  militant  gold  agent  starts  out  in 
the  woods  with  a  large  amount  of  provisions,  as  if  going  on  legitimate 
business.  The  Siberian  police  and  administration  are  too  shrewd  to 
interfere  with  these  volunteer  gold-hunters.  The  agents  stay  in  the 
woods  during  the  whole  gold  season  and  it  is  extremely  dangerous  to 
visit  their  camps.  The  gold  they  get  they  would  not  surrender  even 
at  the  risk  of  their  lives.  They  become  regular  desperadoes  when  in- 
terfered with.  At  the  close  of  the  gold  season  the  agents  carry  their 
booty  to  the  wholesale  dealers. 

The  Siberian  gold  brokers  are  to  all  appearances  perfect  gentle- 
men. They  are  not  armed  and  they  do  not  tremble  for  their  lives  or 
for  their  gold,  which  they  keep  in  piles  on  the  counters.  The  author- 
ities are  on  the  best  of  terms  with  them.  The  transportation  of  the 
gold  collected  by  the  brokers  is  attended  with  danger.  Formerly  there 
were  only  two  gold  markets.  At  Nijni-Novgorod,  during  the  fair,  gold 
was  disposed  of  to  Russian  merchants  for  home  use.  But  a  far  larger 
part  of  the  stolen  gold  went  to  Kovno,  whence  it  was  carried  abroad, 
principally  to  Prussia,  by  Jews,  who  constitute  a  regular  'golden 
militia.'  During  the  last  few  years  two  more  markets  have  been 
opened,  one  in  Odessa,  where  the  gold  is  bought  by  Jews  who  ex- 
change it  for  tobacco  on  which  no  customs  duty  has  been  paid,  and 
for  other  smuggled  goods;  and  the  other  in  Kiakhta,  on  the  Chinese- 
Siberian  frontier,  where  the  gold  is  exchanged  for  tea.  To  carry  the 
gold  over  from  Siberia  to  European  Russia  is  the  most  difficult  task 
of  all.  In  this  case  customs, excise,  and  other  officers,  or  ladies  of  high 
standing,  for  golden  reasons,  of  course,  join  the  'golden  militia.' 

How  much  gold  is  stolen  from  the  bowels  of  Siberia?  Parties  in- 
terested in  the  business  affirm  that  annually  there  is  disposed  in  this 
way  gold  worth  at  least  10,000,000  roubles.  Annually  Siberia  pro- 
duces about  100,000  pounds  of  gold.  So  it  appears  that  a  consider- 
able portion  of  this  precious  metal  goes  abroad  without  bringing  any 
return  to  the  country.  As  to  the  demoralization  produced  by  gold- 
stealing  and  dealing  in  and  transporting  stolen  gold,  who  can  estimate 
it  at  a  money  value  ?" — Quoted  from  the  Siberian  Gazette  by  the  San 
Francisco  Chronicle^  Sept.  18,  i88j. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE    UNITED    STATKS    OF    AMERICA. 

Accidental  character  of  yold  discoveries — Unavailing  searches  of  the  Spaniards  in 
California — Suspicions  of  the  Mission  Fathers — I'revisions of  geologists — The  annexa- 
tion of  California  to  the  United  States  due  to  the  chances  of  an  election,  and  the 
great  discovery  of  gold,  to  the  building  of  a  mill  and  the  observation  of  a  child — Sta- 
tistics of  production. 

NOTHING  more  forcibly  illustrates  the  part  played  by  accident 
in  the  supply  of  the  precious  metals  to  the  world  than  the  his- 
tory of  California  as  a  mining  country.  The  Spaniards,  ransacking 
America  for  the  precious  metals,  had  discovered  and  partly  explored 
California  so  early  as  the  sixteenth  century.  They  afterwards  colon- 
ized and  held  possession  of  it  for  nearly  three  centuries.  They  es- 
tablished missions;  they  pacified  and  converted  the  Indians,  whom  they 
used  as  domestic  servants  and  workmen;  they  cultivated  many  of  its 
arable  valleys;  they  introduced  the  cereal  grains,and  even  transplanted 
the  grape,  the  fig,  the  pomegranate  and  the  artichoke.  Persuaded 
from  the  outset  that  it  was  a  country  rich  in  the  precious  metals  they 
never  ceased  to  look  for  them.  Occasionally  they  found  traces  of 
gold,  but  not  enough  to  attract  a  numerous  colony  from  Spain  or 
Mexico.  The  few  adventurers  who  were  drawn  to  its  distant  shores 
by  stories  of  mineral  finds,  generally  made  their  way  home,  disap- 
pointed and  impoverished.  A  few  remained  to  turn  rancheros,  and 
settle  down  with  the  mission  fathers  and  the  semi-christianized  In- 
dians into  pastoral  communities,  which  eventually  bred  a  race  of  ap- 
athetic half-breeds. 

In  addition  to  these  communities,  there  settled  in  the  southern  part 
of  Alta  California  a  number  of  Spanish  and  Mexican  families  of  high 
culture  and  breeding,  who  entirely  refrained  from  mining  or  prospect- 
ing for  the  precious  metals,  their  sustenance  being  derived  from  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil,  chiefly  with  the  aid  of  native  labour,  and  their 
happiness  consisting  in  the  education  of  their  children,  the  exchange 
of  social  courtesies  and  the  pursuit  of  innocent  diversions.     All  the 


398  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

early  American  travellers  through  this  part  of  the  country,  especially 
the  vicinity  of  Los  Angeles,  agree  in  describing  these  communities 
with  admiration  and  envy.  Theirs  was  an  almost  idyllic  life,  their 
manners  the  perfection  of  courtesy,  their  attitude  toward  strangers 
one  or  cordial  welcome  and  unbounded  hospitality.  Among  these 
early  travellers  was  James  Waters,  who  crossed  the  Plains  from  St. 
Louis  in  1844,  bringing  several  "  cargas  "  of  fine  French  boots,  shoes 
and  muslins,  which,  though  past  the  fashion  in  Paris,  were  yet  new 
to  the  senoritas  of  this  remote  region.  Another  of  them  was  old 
Starkie,  of  San  Bernardino,  who,  in  1849,  left  his  ship  at  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  pursuing  the  coast  line  on  foot,  entered  the  Paradise  of  Los 
Angeles  during  the  next  year.  Both  of  these  travellers,  after  wit- 
nessing the  vicissitudes  of  California  life  for  nearly  half  a  century, 
lunited  in  the  declaration  that  if  t)here  ever  was  a  heaven  on  earth,  it 
was  Southern  California  previous  to  the  gold  discoveries  of  1849. 

Such  were  the  economical  and  social  conditions  of  California  when 
the  adventitious  "success  of  the  Democratic  party  (of  the  United 
States)  in  the  close  presidential  election  of  1844  "  '  l^d  to  the  inde- 
pendence of  Te.xas,  the  war  with  Mexico,  and  the  annexation  of  Cali- 
fornia. But  for  these  events,  which  have  no  necessary  connection 
with  mining,  or  the  search  for  the  precious  metals,  Alta  California 
•might  have  remained  as  Baja  (Lower)  California  has  remained  to  this 
'day,  a  province  of  Mexico;  it  might  still  have  been  the  obscure  and 
'Undeveloped  country  that  it  was  under  the  Spanish  mission  fathers. 

The  existence  of  gold  in  Lower  California  was  determined  by  Cortes, 
-who  fitted  out  an  expedition  in  1536,  and  returned  with  some  small 
quantities  of  the  precious  metal.  Its  existence  in  Alta  California  was 
suspected  by  the  chaplain  of  Drake's  expedition,  1577-79, and  noticed 
in  Hakluyt's  account  of  the  region.  The  finding  of  gold  was  men- 
tioned in  1690  in  a  work  published  in  Spain  by  Loyola  Cavello,  a 
■priest  at  the  mission  of  San  Jose,  in  the  bay  of  San  Francisco.  Capt. 
ShelvGcke,  in  1721,  noticed  signs  of  gold  in  the  soil.  The  historico- 
geographical  dictionary  of  Antonio  de  Alcedo,  1786-89,  affirms  the 
abundance  of  gold,  and  speaks  of  lumps  weighing  from  five  to  eight 
pounds.  In  1837  a  priest  from  California  went  to  Guatemala,  and  in- 
duced Mr.  Anderson,  a  Scotch  gentleman,  to  endeavour  to  obtain 
English  capital  for  the  purpose  of  mining  gold,  which,  he  averred,  was 
to  be  found  not  far  from  San  Fernando.  The  favourable  geological 
appearance  of  the  country  for  gold  was  noticed  by  Professor  J.  D. 
-Dana,  in  1841,  and  recorded  in  his  report  on  California.  In  April, 
'  "  Report  of  the  United  States  Monetary  Commission  "  of  1S76,  p.  43. 


THK    UNITED    STATES    OK    AMERICA.  399 

1847,  Com.  John  D.  Sloat,  U.  S.  N.,  made  a  very  decided  statement, 
concerning  its  auriferous  character,  in  the  New  York  '*  Merciiants' 
Magazine."  About  this  time  tlie  Mormons,  in  the  Cajon  Pass,  to- 
gether with  some  Mexicans  and  Indians,  were  engaged  in  washing 
gold  gravel  upon  the  banks  of  a  small  stream.  In  January,  1S48, 
another  party  of  Mormons  gathered  a  quantity  of  gold  on  Mormon 
Island,  near  Sacramento,  and  within  a  few  miles  of  the  ricii  placers 
afterwards  discovered. 

Ami  yet  none  of  these  observations  or  operations  led  to  the  great 
discovery,  which  was  made  by  the  daughter  of  James  Marshall,  the 
overseer  of  Captain  Sutter's  mill.  While  a  race  was  being  dug  for 
this  mill  on  the  American  fork  of  the  Sacramento,  the  child  found  a 
lump  of  gold  which  she  showed  to  her  father  as  a  pretty  stone.  That 
lump  was  the  beginning  t)f  nearly  one  and  a-half  billions  of  dollars, 
which  the  California  mines  have  yielded  to  the  world. 

During  the  first  few  years  after  the  discovery  of  the  placers  the  en- 
tire precious  metal  product  of  the  coast  was  derived  from  this  source. 
Hydraulic  mining  was  commenced  in  a  small  way  so  early  as  iS5i,but 
it  did  not  assume  material  proportions  until  after  the  close  of  the 
American  Civil  War.  Vein  mining  was  begun  in  California  about 
the  year  i860.  It  has  only  recently  become  important.  Meanwhile, 
it  assumed  enormous  dimensions  in  the  adjoining  State  of  Nevada, 
where  it  was  commenced  at  about  the  same  time,  and  where  the  chief 
part  of  the  product,  in  quantity,  though  scarcely  in  value,  has  been 
silver.  The  principal  locality  of  this  industry  was  the  Comstock  lode, 
upon  which  Virginia  City  was  built,  many  of  the  mines  being  directly 
beneath  the  town. 

From  the  following  Table  it  will  be  seen  that  the  California  placers 
reached  their  ma.ximum  productiveness  almost  immediately  after 
their  discovery,  the  greatest  yieUl  having  been  in  the  year  1S53,  when 
it  reached65  millions, and  in  theopinion  of  some  well-informed  writers, 
75  millions.  From  that  time  to  1S93  it  declined  to  12  millions  a  year. 
Since  1S93  it  has  slightly  increased,  the  produce  at  the  present  time 
being  about  16  millions  a  year.  The  produce  of  silver  in  California 
is  too  inconsiderable  to  merit  further  attention  in  this  place.  At  the 
present  time  it  is  about  a  million  a  year,  and  for  various  reasons  this 
sum  is  not  likely  to  increase.  It  is  only  in  San  Uernardino  County 
that  silver  has  been  found  in  California,  and  there  the  miners  and 
prospectors.since  the  settlement  of  the  Silver  Question, have  deserted 
silver  and  gone  into  gold  mining  and  prospecting,  which  they  now  pur- 
sue e.xclusivelv. 


^OO  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Production  of  Gold  and  Silver  in  the  United  States. 
Except  in  the  first  and  last  columns,  the  sums  are  in  millions  of  gold  dollars. 
(  The  silver  is  stated  throughout  at  the  coining  value  of  $i.2g2gper  oz.  Troy,  though 
it  ceased  to  retain  that  value  after  J8jj.) 
Gold.  Silver. 


California 

Rest  of 

Total 

Year. 

only. 

the  U.  S. 

U.S. 

1848 

10 

— 

10 

49 

40 

— 

40 

1850 

50 

— 

50 

51 

55 

— 

55 

52 

60 

— 

60 

53 

65 

— 

65 

54 

60 

— 

60 

55 

55 

— 

55 

56 

55 

— 

55 

57 

55 

— 

55 

58 

50 

— 

50 

59 

50 

— 

50 

i860 

45 

I 

46 

6r- 

41 

2 

43 

62 

35 

4 

39 

63 

32 

8 

40 

64 

35 

It 

46 

65 

35 

14 

49 

66 

25 

15 

40 

67 

25 

17 

42 

68 

22 

16 

3S 

69 

23 

14 

37 

1870 

25 

12  • 

37 

71 

20 

15 

35 

72 

19 

19 

38 

73 

18 

21 

39 

74 

20 

iS 

3S 

75 

18 

15 

33 

76 

19 

24 

43 

77 

15 

30 

45 

78 

17 

21 

38 

79 

18 

i3 

36 

1880 

18 

15 

33 

-■81 

17 

14 

31 

82 

16 

13 

29 

83 

14 

14 

28 

84 

14 

II 

25 

85 

14 

12 

26 

86 

15 

15 

30 

87 

14 

19 

33 

88 

14 

16 

30 

89 

13 

20 

33 

1890 

13 

13 

26 

91 

13 

12 

25 

92 

12 

12 

24 

93 

12 

13 

25 

94 

13 

24 

37 

95 

15 

32 

47 

96 

17 

34 

51 

97 

16 

42 

58 

98 

16 

47 

63 

99 

15 

57 

72 

IQOO 

17 

60 

77 

Nevada        Rest  of  Total 

only.  the  U.S.  U.S. 


Silver  in 

London, 

per  oz. 

—  —  —  $1-29 

—  —  —  1. 30^ 

—  —  —  1.32 

—  —  —  1.34 

—  —  —  1.33 

—  —  —  1.35 

—  —  —  1.35 

—  —  —  1.34 

—  —  —  1.34 

—  —  —  1.35 

—  —  —  1.34 

—  —  —  i.3f' 

—  —  —  1.35 
2—2  1.33 
5  —  5  1.35 

8  I  9  1-35 

10  I  II  1.35 

9  2  II  1.34 

8  2  10  1.34 
12  2  14  1.33 

9  3  12  1.33 
9  4  -  13  1.33 

12  4  16  1.33 

14  4  -  18  1.33 
17  3  20  1. 31 
19  6  .25  1.29 

15  10  25  1.28 
21  9  30  1-24 
27  II  38  I. 16 
25  15  40  1.20 

19  20  39  I. 15 

20  21  41  I. 12 

11  23  39  X.15 
7  36  43  I-I3 
7  40  47  I-I4- 

5  41  46  i-ii^ 

6  43  49  i-ii 
5  47  52  I.07 
5  46  51  -99 

5  49  54  .98 

7  50  57  -94 

6  54  60  .  .94 
6  58  64  1.05 
4  56  60  .99 
3  52  55  -87 
2  50  52  .78 
2  51  53  -63 
I  53  54  -65 

1  54  55  -68 

2  53  55  -60 
I  54  55  -59 
I  54  55  -59 
I  59  60  .61 


THE    UNITED    STATES    OK    AMERICA.  40I 

\\'ith  reference  to  tlie  foregoing  Table,  it  is  to  be  remarked  that 
from  1863  to  1S77  was  the  productive  period  of  theComstock  Lode, 
and  that  from  1SS4  to  1S93  the  figures  given  for  the  produce  of  gold 
are  probably  from  five  to  ten  millit)n  dollars  a  year  in  excess  of  the 
fact.  They  are  retained  in  the  Table,  first,  because  they  are  the  ac- 
tual figures  forwarded  by  the  author's  correspondents;  and  second, 
because  they  are  a  concession  toward  the  still  higher  figures  included 
in  the  official  Mint  Reports 

The  Unites  States  Government  coins  and  fully  monetises  gold  bul- 
lion for  individuals,  and  without  limit,  charging  fc^r  these  services 
and  advantages  merely  a  fraction  of  the.cost  of  coinage.  Practically 
it  coins  and  monetises  privately-owned  gold-bullion  gratuitously.  As 
the  owners  of  gold  coins  may  have  them  minted  and  re-minted  as  often 
as  they  please,  without  loss,  and  may  melt  them  down  or  e.vport 
them  at  pleasure,  the  mint  and  market  value  of  that  metal  is  substan- 
tially identical.  Such,  however,  since  1S73,  has  not  been  the  case  with 
silver.  This  metal  the  government  coins  for  itself  only.  A  troy  ounce 
of  fine  silver  has  always  been  and  is  still  coined  into  $1.29;  but  none 
is  now  coined  on  individual  account.  The  "coining  value"  of  silver 
is  therefore  merely  nominal  ;and,since  1873,  a  "  market  "  value,  the  re- 
sult of  a  competition  between  the  mints  and  the  silversmiths  through- 
out the  world,  has  taken  its  place.  This  market  value  is  best  deter- 
mined in  London,  because  that  city  is  the  centre  of  the  world's  e.x- 
changes.  But  though  determined  in  London,  it  does  not  hold  good 
elsewhere;  freight,  insurance  and  time  (interest),  all  contributing  to 
effect  local  deviations. 

There  are  no  ta.xes  on  the  mining  or  production  of  the  precious 
metals  in  the  United  States,  except  a  statistical  tax  in  the  State  of 
Nevada.  There  are  no  official  or  sworn  returns  of  production  from 
the  mines,  nor  no  laws  by  which  such  returns  can  be  enforced.  In 
the  Report  of  the  Monetary  Commission  of  1876  the  defects  of  the 
various  methods  employed  to  ascertain  the  bullion  product,  namely, 
the  Export  and  Consumption  method,  the  Express  and  Railway  Car- 
riage method,  the  Hank  method,  and  the  Mint  Estimates,  were  shown 
at  length.  For  example,  ores  containing  bullion  are  shipped  from 
Montana,  Idaho,  Dakota,  etc.,  to  Utah,  for  treatment  in  the  smelting 
works  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and  they  often  appear  in  the  statistics  of 
both  States.  Other  ores  are  shipped  for  reduction  from  Nevada, 
Arizona,  etc..  to  California.  Here  a  similar  duplication  frequently 
occurs,  that  is  to  say,  the  bullion  is  returned  as  the  product  of  the 
mines  in  one  State,  and  of  the  reduction   works  in  the  other.     The 


402 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


Denver  Mint  returns  include  bullion  from  the  ores  of  other  States 
sent  to  that  establishment  for  reduction,  and  deposited  in  the  Mint 
as  Colorado  bullion.  The  produce  of  Mexico  and  British  America,  in- 
cluding the  Yukon,  finds  its  way  into  the  American  returns.  Through 
these  means  the  American  Mint  Estimates  are  greatly  exaggerated. 

After  these  defects  and  blunders  were  pointed  out,  the  Mint  Bureau " 
adopted  a  method  of  collecting  production  statistics  even  worse  than 
the  previous  ones.  It  made  them  up  from  items  in  the  mining  news- 
papers and  from  the  reports  of  local  correspondents,  who  obtained 
their  news  from  others.  '^  As  it  is  known  beforehand  that  the  details  of 
such  information  will  be  published  in  the  Mint  Reports  as  "official," 
this  new  system  afforded  an  opportunity  for  mine-vendors  and  their 
friends  to  advertise  their  properties  to  the  world.  The  result  was 
that  the  statistics  were  replete  with  erroneous  and  exaggerated  re- 
turns'from  "  prospects"  and  broken-down  mines,  which  were  thus 
prepared  to  be  floated  upon  the  Bourses  of  the  world  as  productive 
or  promising  adventures.  In  this  way  not  only  was  the  American 
Administration  misinformed  in  regard  to  the  bullion  product,  but  mine- 
promoters  and  the  investing  public,  both  in  San  Francisco,  Chicago, 
New  York  and  London  were  grossly  misled  with  regard  to  the  pro- 
ductiveness and  value  of  such  properties. 

When  the  Silver  Question  assumed  political  importance,  the  Mint 
Bureau,  going  from  bad  to  worse,  adoped  a  most  extraordinary 
method  of  guiding  the  public  on  this  subject:  it  sent  to  Germany  for 
its  production  statistics.  These  were  generously  supplied  from  the 
ample  imagination  of  Dr.  Adolf  Soetbeer,  who  knew  nothing  about 
the  American  mines.  In  1887  the  State  Department  of  the  United 
States  paid  a  considerable  sum  of  money  to  one  man  to  go  to  Ger- 
many and  get  a  copy  of  Dr.  Soetbeer's  book,  and  other  sums  to  an- 
other man,  who  merely  translated  the  headings  of  this  precious  work. 
Then  the  results  were  handed  to  the  United  States  Government  Prin- 
ter, in  order  that  they  might  be  published  as  a  volume  of  the  United 
States  "  Consular  reports,"  and  copied  by  the  ]Mint  Bureau  as  official. 
Being  thus  doubly  stamped  "  official,"  first  as  part  of  the  Consular  re- 
ports,and  second, as  Estimates  of  the  Mint  Bureau,  these  figures,  made 

^  For  example,  all  that  portion  of  the  "  Report  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint  upon  the 
Statistics  of  the  Production  of  the  Precious  Metals  "  for  1S82,  which  relates  to  Cali- 
fornia, was  farmed  out  to  an  infirm  person  named  R.  W.  Hardenberg  for  $600. 
This  man  sublet  the  job  to  a  mine-owner  named  R.  C.  Donns,  of  Amador,  and  to 
several  others,  at  $30  to  $50  each,  making  a  profit  of  S400  by  the  operation.  Infor- 
mation received  by  the  writer  from  R.    W .  Hardenberg  himself,  Feb.  jg,  1884. 

^  All  this  and  more  is  admitted  in  the  Mint  Report  for  the  calendar  year,  1S83,  than 
which  there  could  scarcely  be  adduced  a  more  piteous  exhibition  of  official  confusion, 
blundering  and  incompetence. 


THE    UNITED    STATKS    OF    AMERICA.  403 

in  Germany, liave  found  their  way  into  almost  every  work  of  reference 
printed  in  America.  It  is,  perhaps,  hardly  necessary  to  say  that, 
whatever  their  usefulness  as  political  pointers,  they  are  of  little  value 
as  statistics  of  the  precious  metals. 

Now  that  the  Silver  Question  is  settled  and  both  Russia  and  India 
have  been  enabled,  largely  through  these  intrigues,  to  purchase  their 
supplies  of  the  white  metal  from  the  United  States  at  half  price,  some 
more  sober  arrangement  of  the  production  statistics  appears  to  be 
needful.  Besides  the  information  gathered  by  the  present  writer,  al- 
most the  only  returns  which  exhibit  the  Production  of  the  Precious 
Metals  in  the  United  States  are  those  of  the  bullion  carried  from  the 
mines  to  the  mints,  or  else  to  refiners  or  reduction  works,  by  the  ex- 
presses and  other  transportation  companies.  *  One  of  the  express  com- 
panies, which,  thirty  years  ago,  enjoyed  almost  a  monopoly  of  this 
carriage,  but  enjoys  it  no  longer,  has  been  in  the  habit  of  compiling 
an  annual  production  table  of  the  precious  metals  from  its  own  way- 
bills and  such  others  as  courtesy  supplied.  The  tables  thus  compiled 
were  published  as  business  cards  or  circulars  by  the  Superintendent 
of  the  Wells  Fargo  Express  Co., Mr.  Jno.  J.  Valentine.  This  gentleman 
received  no  official  reward  for  his  work.  There  was  no  responsibility 
attached  to  the  figures  which  he  gave  out.  Whether  they  were  right 
or  wrong  made  no  difference  to  him  or  to  anybody  else  and  could  do 
them  neither  harm  nor  good.  It  was  only  the  public,  the  people  at 
large,  who  were  interested  in  the  results  and  in  the  policy  of  govern- 
ment, or  the  legislation,  which  might  flow  from  these  statistics.  Yet 
they  were  repeatedly  shown  to  be  grossly  incorrect.  The  Commissioner 
of  Mining  Statistics,  in  his  Report  for  1873,  p.  507,  pointed  out  blun- 
ders in  Mr.  Valentine's  tables  amounting  to  many  millions  of  dollars. 
In  the  evidence  which  Mr.  Valentine  himself  gave  to  the  Monetary 
Commission  of  1876,  he  admitted  errors,  omissions  and  blunders  of  a 
still  more  startling  character.  For  example,  during  the  productive 
period  of  the  Comstock  Lode,  the  bullion  from  these  mines  consisted 
of  dore  bars,  which  were  registered  as  dore  or  silver,  whereas  nearly 
one-half  of  their  value  was  derived  from  the  gold  in  the  bars.     Not 

*  While  the  Comstock  Lode  of  Xev.icia  was  in  bonanza,  the  ofticial  returns  of  the 
Nevada  mines  to  the  State  .Assessor  (Nevada  is  the  only  State  which  levies  a  tax — in 
this  instance  a  triflinp  statistical  tax — upon  the  produce  of  mininj,')  furnished  a  valu- 
able guide  to  the  production  of  the  precious  metals  ;  but  this  halycon  period  has  lonj^ 
since  passed.  The  bullion  deposited  at  the  Mints  affords  noguide,  because  nobody  is 
obliged  to  send  his  bullion  to  the  Mints,  and  in  fact  much  of  it  never  goes  there.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Mints  receive  large  amounts  of  foreign  bullion  for  coin.ngc,  which 
they  are  not  always  enabled  to  distinguish  from  native  bullion.  This  inability  is  admitted 
in  the  .Mint  Report  for  1893. 


404  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

only  were  they  thus  registered  in  the  bullion  receipts  given  by  the  ex- 
press companies  (most  of  which  were  personally  examined  by  the 
writer  on  behalf  of  the  Monetary  Commission),  the  bars  were  trans- 
ported by  the  express  companies  and  appeared  in  their  way-bills  as 
"  dore, "  or  else  as  "  silver. "  ^  Moreover,  when  the  bars  were  exported 
to  foreign  countries,  as  many  of  them  were,  they  were  registered  in 
the  official  Commerce  and  Navigation  Reports  as  "  silver. "  "  The  im- 
portance of  this  blundering  will  perhaps  be  appreciated  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  Comstock  Lode  produced  over  350  millions, 
nearly  half  of  which  was  gold.' 

Such  was  the  material  which  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
formed  the  only  basis,  apart  from  conjecture,  for  the  production  sta- 
tistics of  the  Mining  Commissioners  and  the  Mint  Bureau  of  the  United 
States,  and  such  to  a  great  extent  is  the  material  upon  which  their  esti- 
mates still  rest;  for  in  truth, for  many  years  there  has  been  little  other. 

As  for  the  estimates  of  production  compiled  by  the  Mint  Bureau 
from  the  letters  of  its  correspondents  in  the  Mining  States,  most  of 
them  are  of  little  worth.  Exception  must,  however,  be  made  in  fa- 
vour of  the  returns  by  mines  from  California,  Nevada,  Washington 
and  Colorado  published  in  some  of  the  later  Mint  reports.  These  are 
based  on  a  proper  system  and  may  be  regarded  as  reliable.  Justice 
to  the  Mint  Bureau  compels  us  to  declare  that  no  comprehensive  pro- 
duction statistics  of  the  Precious  Metals  in  the  United  States  can  be 
relied  upon  until  a  statistical  tax  is  placed  upon  the  produce  of  the 
mines.  At  present  the  mines  are  not  taxed;  they  are  not  obliged  to 
make  any  returns  of  production,  and  in  fact  they  furnish  no  returns 
at  all  except  when  it  pleases  them,  and  this  is  chiefly  when  they  are 
in  bonanza.  Such  returns  are  grossly  exaggerated,  and  they  reduce 
the  correspondents  of  the  Mint  Bureau  to  the  necessity  of  accepting 
tumid  statements,  or  else  to  fall  back  on  Mr.  Valentine's  tables  and 

*  "Your  suggestion  that  the  dore  bars  in  our  Tables  are  misleading  to  persons  at  a 
distance  has  been  acted  upon,  and  having  remedied  these  features,  I  now  take  the  lib- 
erty of  enclosing  you  a  corrected  copy." — Jno.  J.  Valentine,  Jan.  3rd,  1878. 

*  "United  States  Custom  House,  San  Francisco,  Collector's  Office,  Dec.  30,  1876. 
No  dore  bars  are  manifested  as  such  (for  export),  but  we  assume  that  when  the  value 
of  silver  predominates,  which  is  usually  the  case,  they  are  manifested  as  'silver  bullion.'" 
J.  A.  Perkins. 

'  The  Mint  Report,  1899,  p.  149,  shows  that  the  Comstock  Lode  produced,  1S59-99, 
203  millions  silver,  146  millions  gold,  and  18  millions  unclassified  :  total,  367  millions. 
We  believe  the  proportion  of  gold  to  be  underestimated.  During  the  first  few  years 
of  its  activity  the  Comstock  produced  more  gold  than  silver.  In  many  of  Mr.  Valen- 
tine's annual  statements,  previous  to  his  examination  by  the  Monetary  Commission  of 
1876,  the  whole  produce  of  Nevada,  averaging  25  to  30  millions  a  year,  was  credited 
to  silver  and  nothing  to  gold.  Yet  it  was  upon  this  slipshod  commercial  circular, 
which  had  only  a  remote  relation  to  fact,  that  the  Mint  laws  of  France,  England,  Ger- 
many and  the  United  States  were  made  to  turn! 


THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA.  405 

adopt  these  as  the  basis  of  conjectures,  which  in  many  instances  have 
proved  to  be  entirely  misleading. 

Table  sho'i'iiig  the  Production  of  GoU  in  ///<•  I'nited  States  of  America,  according  to 
different  authorities.      Sums  in  millions  of  dollars. 


Year. 

Del  M.nr. 

Valentine. 

Mint 
Hureau. 

Year. 

Del  Mar. 

Valentine. 

Mint 

Bgreau 

1880 

34 

33 

3(' 

1S90 

26 

32 

33 

Si 

32 

31 

35 

91 

25 

32 

33 

82 

27 

29 

33 

92 

24 

30 

33 

S3 

25 

28 

30 

93 

25 

34 

36 

84 

23 

25 

31 

94 

37 

46 

40 

S5 

26 

26 

32 

95 

47 

48 

47 

86 

25 

30 

35 

96 

51 

53 

53 

87 

26 

33 

33 

97 

58 

64 

57 

88 

24 

30 

33 

98 

f>3 

66 

f'4 

89 

26 

33 

33 

99 

72 

73 

71 

Totals,         26S  2yS  331  Totals,  42S  47S  467 

The  produce  of  gold  during  the  twenty  years,  1880-99,  according 
to  Del  Mar,  was  696;  Valentine,  776;  and  the  Mint  Bureau,  798  mil- 
lion dollars;  a  difference  between  the  first  and  third  estimates  of 
practically  100  millions,  and  between  the  second  and  third  of  32  mil- 
lions. The  disagreement  between  these  various  authorities  concern- 
ing the  produce  of  silver  is  even  greater;  but  in  order  not  to  confuse 
the  subject,  it  is  enough  in  this  place  to  consider  the  discrepancies 
with  reference  to  gold.  Leaving  the  first  estimate  out  of  view  for 
the  present,  here  is  a  difference  in  twenty  years  of  32  millions  be- 
tween Mr.  Valentine,  who  bases  his  computations  on  the  Express 
carriage  of  bullion,  and  the  Mint  Bureau,  which  bases  them  partly  on 
the  academic  figures  of  Dr.  Soetbeer,  a  German  author,  who  has  never 
visited  the  mines,  and  partly  on  the  gossip  of  mining  newspapers  and 
the  letters  of  distant  correspondents,  some  of  whom  are  known  to 
have  sublet  their  commissions  to  irresponsible  and  ignorant  persons. 
When  the  importance  of  these  computations  is  held  in  view, the  enor- 
mous discrepancies  between  them  should  surely  suggest  the  neces- 
sity of  imposing  a  statistical  tax  on  the  produce  of  the  mines,  so  that 
the  government  may  have  some  data  upon  which  to  form  a  judgment 
concerning  the  production  of  the  i>recious  metals.  These  metals 
furnish  the  basis  of  its  monetary  system  and  fix  the  value  not  only 
of  all  the  property  in  the  country,  but  what  is  of  infinitely  greater 
consequence,  they  determine  the  value  of  those  exchanges  of  services 
and  commodities  which  most  deeply  affect  the  welfare  of  the  nation. 

The  indifference  exhibited  by  the  .\merican  government  with  re- 
gard to  the  production  of  the  precious  metals  from  its  own  domains 
finds  expression  in  another  direction.      It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that 


406  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

ihe  United  States  have  always  made  their  coins  of  a  material  which 
was  either  altogether  or  largely  under  foreign  control.  Until  the 
Civil  War,  when  the  Comstock  Mines  were  opened,  the  United  States 
produced  no  silver,  yet  the  circulating  coins  which  it  adopted  were 
chiefly  silver  ones:  at  first  Spanish  and  jNIexican  silver  dollars,  halves, 
quarters,  eighths,  and  sixteenths,  together  with  a  few  French  five- 
franc-pieces;  afterwards  American  dollars  and  fractions.  When  the 
Comstock  Lode  began  to  be  prolific  of  silver,  the  authority  of  the 
Mints  to  coin  any  more  silver  dollars  was  destroyed  by  Act  of  Con- 
gress. Neither  the  prolificity  of  the  Appalachian  nor  of  the  Cali- 
fornian  gold  mines  could  influence  the  government  to  demonetise 
silver,  nor  could  the  Nevada  mines  influence  it  to  demonetise  gold. 
Such  self-denial,  such  faith  in  the  disinterestedness  of  those  foreign 
states,  whose  emissaries  suggested  this  policy,  might  be  commendable, 
could  it  hope  for  an  equally  generous  reciprocity;  but,  unhappily, 
national  policy  is  not  commonl-y  based  upon  sentiment,  so  much  as 
interest.  And  it  is  greatly  to  be  feared  that  these  strange  instances 
of  liberality  on  the  part  of  the  Americain  government  will  go  without 
reward. 


THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA.  407 


CIIROXOI.OCIV  OK  f.OI.D  IN   CALIFORNIA. 

The  discovery  of  gold  at  Colonia  was  not  the  beginning  of  gold 
mining  in  California.  Gold  was  very  well  known  to  exist  in  the  soil; 
but  so  li)ng  as  the  Missions  lasted,  mining  was  discouraged  by  the 
Jesuit  fathers,  and  this  was  quite  sufficient  to  put  a  stop  to  it.  Oppo- 
sition to  gold  and  silver  mining  was  the  avowed  policy  of  the  church. 
The  dreadful  accounts  of  mine-slavery,  which,  during  three  centuries 
(from  the  time  of  La  Casas  to  that  of  Miguel  Hidalgo),  the  priests  in 
charge  of  the  American  missions,  had  sent  to  Rome,  furnished  the 
ground  for  this  policy.  It  was  represented  as  hopeless  for  the  priests 
to  civilize  the  natives  so  long  as  they  were  systematically  brutalized 
by  mine-slavery;  so  the  church  was  asked  to  oppose  it. 

After  the  Spanish-.Vmerican  Revolution,  the  Mexican  government 
refused  to  sup|)ort  the  Missions,  and  when  the  Missions  fell,  the  op- 
position to  mine-slavery(it  was  called  peonage)  fell  with  them.  Where- 
upon gold-mining,  long  suppressed  in  California,  was  at  once  resumed. 
Of  the  many  localities  in  which  gold  was  believed  to  exist,  the  San 
Fernando  Valley  was  the  only  one  which  was  at  that  time  practical 
to  work,  because  it  was  there  alone  that  peonage  could  be  maintained. 
That  part  of  the  country  was  open  and  the  Sj^anish  ht)rsemen  could 
ride  in  any  direction.  In  the  northern  foothills,  where  gold  was  after- 
wards found  in  still  greater  plenty,  the  Indian,  owing  to  the  rugged- 
ness  of  the  country,  was  secure  from  arrest  and  mine-slavery,  and 
therefore  mining  was  impracticable;  and  so  it  continued  to  be  until 
the  mines  fell  to  a  free  flag  and  a  free  people. 

1534.  Cortes  sends  out  an  expedition  from  Mexico  which  discovers 
Baja  Calfornia,  and  prospects  for  gold. 

1536.  Cortes  himself  sails  from  Mexico,  and  lands  upon  the  coast 
of  Baja  California  in  search  of  mines. 

1536.  Cabeva  de  Vaca  starts  overland  from  Florida  in  152S  and 
after  great  suffering  and  the  loss  of  all  his  jiarty,  except  two  whites 
and  a  negro,  he  reaches  Texas  in  1535,  where  the  adventurers  are  en- 
slaved by  the  natives,  and  where  they  hear  of  the  Seven  Cities  of 
Cibola  filled  with  gold.  In  1536  they  escape  to  the  Rio  Fuerte  in 
Mexico,  and  are  brought  into  San  Miguel,  a  Spanish  settlement  on  the 
west  coast.  The  account  of  Cabe<;a  de  Vaca  gave  rise  to  Coronado's 
fruitless  expedition  to  Cibola  in  1540.  Del  Mar's  "  Hist.  Money  in 
America,"  p.  32;  Bancroft's  "  California,"!,  6. 

1539.  Marco  de  Niza  sails  from  Culiacan  to  the  Colorado  River, 
and  returns  without  success  in  finding  gold. 

1540.  Coronado  go«s  from  Culiacan  to  the  Colorado  River;  sees 
the  great  Cai^on;  explores  the  country  now  known  as  .\rizona.  New 
Mexico  anil  Kansas;  discovers  the  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola;  and  returns 
to  Mexico  disa|)pointed  as  to  gold. 

1540.     In  a  work  published  during  the  i6th  century,  it  is  asserted 


4o8  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

that  some  of  the  soldiers  in  the  Expedition  of  Francisco  Vasquez  de 
Coronado  to  the  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola,  not  sharing  the  pessimist 
views  of  their  commander,  resolved  to  desert  their  party  and  push  on 
to  Quivera,  in  California,  a  country  governed  by  Tatarrax,  a  hoary- 
headed,  long-bearded  king,  who  worshipped  a  golden  cross  and  an 
image  of  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  and  who  was  amply  provided  with 
gold  from  the  mines  of  his  country.  Nothing  is  said  concerning  the 
result  of  this  adventure,  which,  if  it  took  place  at  all,  probably  ended 
in  the  entire  loss  of  the  party  in  the  endeavour  to  cross  the  terrible 
desert  of  the  Mohave.  There  is  some  blundering  in  this  narrative. 
The  Cities  of  Cibola,  reached  by  Coronado,  must  have  been  in  the 
Gila  Valley.  From  this  point  he  is  said  to  have  travelled  "  north- 
•wardly  and  eastwardly  for  nearly  three  weeks,"  when  he  saw  immense 
herds  of  buffalos.  This  would  bring  him  to  the  northern  part  of 
•Arizona.  It  is  here  that  he  heard  of  Quivera  and  its  King  Tatarrax, 
who  lived  still  further  north,  and  therefore  away  from  California.  If 
any  of  Coronado's  soldiers  left  him  to  seek  Tatarrax,  they  must  have 
wandered  into  the  desert  of  Nevada,  rather  than  that  of  the  Mohave. 
However,  one  would  have  been  quite  as  fatal  as  the  other.  Mineral 
Resources,  1S84,  p.  548;  and  Del  Mar's  History  Money  in  America, 
p.  41,  in  which  will  be  found  a  full  account  of  Coronado's  Expedition. 

1542.     Cabrillo  discovers  the  bay  of  San  Diego. 

1570.  "Very  interesting  is  a  paper  in  the  National  Archives  in  the 
Hague,  a  letter  written  from  Japan  in  the  year  1635  by  a  certain 
William  Verstege  and  addressed  to  Governor  General  Henricq  Brou- 
wer,  at  Batavia.  Many  years  ago,  says  the  writer  of  the  letter,  a  ves- 
sel sailed  from  Manila  to  Nova  Hispania  (Mexico).  In  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  at  a  northern  latitude  of  37^  degrees,  and  at  a  distance  of  from 
380  to  390  miles  to  the  east  of  Japan,  this  vessel  was  overtaken  by  a 
heavy  storm,  in  which  she  lost  her  mast,  and  therefore  was  obliged 
either  to  return  or  put  into  the  nearest  land  which  she  could  reach. 
As  the  weather  cleared  up  a  little  they  saw  a  large  and  mountainous 
island,  to  which  they  took  their  course  and  landed.  The  people  they 
met  on  the  shore  were  fair  and  well  proportioned  and  extremely  kind. 

After  having  fitted  a  new  mast  the  voyage  was  continued.  But  the 
visit  paid  to  this  island  had  been  satisfactory,  and  the  crew  said  that 
gold  and  silver  was  so  plentiful  on  the  island  that  one  could  pick  it 
up  on  the  shore.  Even  the  kettles  and  other  cooking  utensils  which 
the  people  there  used,  were  made  from  these  metals. 

The  king  of  Spain,  having  heard  of  the  occurrence,  sent  an  order 
to  the  viceroy  of  Nova  Hispania  that  he  should  make  investigations 
after  the  island,  and  a  vessel  was  accordingly  fitted  out  at  Acapulco 
for  this  purpose.  The  vessel  was  first  to  take  her  course  to  Japan,  and 
having  sold  there  the  wares  and  merchandise  which  she  carried,  from 
their  produce,  a  second  one  should  be  built.  This  expedition  failed, 
and  most  probably  the  Spaniards,  after  the  ill-success  of  the  first  at- 
tempt, had  not  renewed  it.  William  Verstege,  however,  thought  it  his 
duty  to  communicate  the  information  which  he  had  obtained  to  the 
Governor-General,  and  thought  it  worth  while  that  the  mattershould 


THE    UNITED    STATES    OE    AMERICA.  409 

be  taken  into  careful  consideration.  It  would  not  be  such  an  expen- 
sive undertaking  to  send  out  a  couple  of  vessels  from  Ja|»an  in  search 
of  the  island.  It  was  mountainous  and  situated  at  a  distance  of  from 
380  to  390  and  at  the  utmost  400  miles  east  from  Japan,  and  at  a 
northern  latitude  of  37/4  degrees.  This  letter  seems  to  have  made 
a  favourable  impressit)n  upon  the  Governor-Cieneral  and  to  have  in- 
duced him  to  send  out  an  expedition  in  search  of  the  wonderful  is- 
land. Consequently,  on  July  2,  1639,  two  vessels  called  the  /u/^u-/ and 
the  Gracht  left  IJatavia  under  Commander  Matihys  Quast.  Abel 
Janssoon  Tasman  was  subordinated  to  him  as  commaiuler  of  the 
Gracht.  According  to  their  orders  they  had  to  continue  their  voyage 
at  a  northern  latitude  of  ziY^  degrees  till  they  reached  the  continent 
of  America,  if  at  a  distance  of  about  400  miles  eastward  from  Japan 
they  did  not  find  the  island.  It  was  not  found,  although  at  that  lati- 
tude they  pursued  their  course  to  a  distance  of  600  geograi)hical  miles 
from  Japan. 

A  second  expedition  was  sent  out  to  the  same  purpose  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  1643,  with  tiie  two  ships  Castriciim  and  Jiii-skcns; 
Commander  Maerten  Gerritsoon  Vries  and  Under-Commander  Hen- 
drik  Cornelis  Schaep.  But  this  time  also  the  exi)edition  failed.  On 
the  east  coast  of  Nippon  the  two  vessels  were  separated' by  a  hurri- 
cane. The  Breskens,  after  having  lost  her  captain  and  nine  men,  who 
were  captured  by  the  Jajianese  in  going  on  shore,  sailed  eastward  and 
'  was  obligetl  to  return  on  account  of  sickness  among  the  crew,  after 
reacliing  a  distance  of  about  480  miles  from  Japan.  The  Castriciim 
also  hail  to  return  without  any  result  after  having  sailed  450  geogra- 
phical miles  from  Japan. 

Between  the  37th  and  38th  degrees  of  northern  latitude  no  island 
certainly  could  be  discovered,  but  if  Matthys  Quast  had  seen  his  way 
to  execute  the  orders  which  he  had  received,  and  to  continue  his  voy- 
age till  he  had  reached  the  continent  of.\merica,he  would  have  reached 
the  land  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  San  Francisco.  The  es- 
tablishment of  a  colony  in  those  regions  would  not  h.ave  been  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company.  It  could  have  been 
supervised  from  Batavia  just  as  well  as  Manila  was  from  .Mexico,  'i'he 
East  India  Company  had  ill-luck  in  its  search  for  gold  mines." — Let- 
ter of  Reinier  D.  Verbeek,  dated  Haarlem,  Holland,  Jan.  14.  1897, 
and  printed  in  the  New  York  Mining  and  Engineering  Journal, 
April  17,  1897. 

1579.  Drake  visits  Alta  California  and  suspects  the  presence  of 
gold;  one  of  his  officers  writing:  "  There  is  no  part  of  the  earth  here 
wherein  there  is  not  a  reasonable  quantity  of  gold  or  silver. "  Says  Ed- 
mund Randolph  in  Min.  Res.,  1867,  p.  271:  "  The  natives  mistook 
them  (Drake's  officers)  for  gods,  worship|)ed  them  and  offered  sacri- 
fices to  them."  Had  the  Indians  been  aware  of  the  golden  resources 
at  their  own  command  and  made  them  known  to  Drake,  it  seems  not 
improbable  that  the  worshipped  and  the  worshippers  would  have 
changed  places. 

1584.     Expedition  of  Da  Gali. 


4IO  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

1595.     Expedition  of  Cermiiion. 

1602.     Expedition  of  Biscaino. 

1640.  The  government  opens  the  Testaloma  mine  in  the  Real  of 
Santa  Ana,  or  San  Antonia,  Lower  California,  and  erects  smelting 
works,  the  ruins  of  which  were  visited  in  1769  by  the  European  as- 
tronomers, who  observed  the  transit  of  Venus  in  Lower  California. 

1642.     Mission  San  Jose  founded  by  Pacheco. 

1650.  During  the  17th  century  numerous  placers  and  quartz  veins 
were  discovered  and  reported  by  the  military  guards  stationed  at  ®r 
near  the  southern  Missions ;  but  the  padres  discouraged  their  explora- 
tion on  the  grounds:  first,  that  it  would  necessitate  mine-slavery;  se- 
cond, that  it  would  invite  none  but  depraved  and  abandoned  men,  who 
would  surely  introduce  vice  and  wickedness  among  the  free  Lidians, 
whom  the  padres  were  endeavouring  with  much  success  to  civilize; 
third,  that  it  would  excite  avarice  and  the  worst  of  passions  and  occa- 
sion turbulence,  disorder  and  peonage  for  debt.  The  padres  had  seen 
enough  of  these  consequences  in  Mexico,  and  were  confident  that  they 
would  again  follow  any  permission  which  might  be  given  to  private 
adventurers  to  work  the  mines.     Forbes. 

1 700.  Manuel  Oslo,  who  had  accumulated  a  fortune  from  the  pearl 
fishery,  opens  mines  in  the  vicinity  of  San  Antonia,  where  there  is 
still  to  be  seen  the  ruins  of  the  smelting  works  he  erected.  San  An- 
tonia is  an  inland  town  in  Lower  California,  about  eighty  miles  south 
of  La  Paz.    Forbes. 

1721.  Capt.  George  Shelvocke,  R.  N.,  visited  the  coasts  of  Cali- 
fornia this  year,  and  observing  that  the  soil  near  Puerto  Seguro  con- 
tained certain  glittering  particles,  he  washed  it  for  gold,  but  owing  to 
inexpertness,  failed  to  extract  the  metal.  He  carried  away  some  of 
the  gravel  for  future  assay.  This  gravel  was  lost  with  his  ship  on  the 
coast  of  China.  Capt.  Shelvocke's  voyage  was  published  in  London, 
in  1726. 

1750.  About  the  middle  of  the  i8th  century  the  interdict  hitherto 
placed  on  the  mines  of  California  by  the  missionary  priests  was  partly 
removed,  and  numerous  adventurers  from  Mexico  explored  the  coun- 
try, particularly  Lower  California,  for  the  precious  metals.    Forbes, 

1768.  The  Count  de  Galvez,  Governor  of  the  province  of  Cali- 
fornia, orders  the  mines  near  San  Antonia  to  be  reopened  and  worked 
on  Government  account.  A  decree  to  this  effect  was  promulgated 
in  the  latter  part  of  this  year.  The  names  of  the  mining  districts 
were:  i.  El  Triumfo;  2,  El  Oro;  3,  El  Valle  Perdido;  4,  El  Rosario; 
5,  El  Tale;  6,  Las  Gallinas,  and  7,  Los  Juntos.     Forbes. 

1769.  The  European  astronomers  who  landed  upon  the  coast  of 
Lower  California  to  observe  the  transit  of  Venus,  in  July,  1769, 
noticed  the  abandoned  smelting  works  of  the  Testaloma  mine. 

1769.     Mission  San  Diego,  Alta  California,  founded  July  i6th. 

1 77 1.     Mission  San  Gabriel,  Alta  California,  founded  Sept.  8th. 

1775-  -A-  gold  placer,  now  known  as  the  Carga  Muchacha  mine,  on 
the  Colorado  river,  near  Fort  Yuma,  was  discovered  this  year.  Henry 
G.  Hanks,  in  Mineral  Resources,  1884,  p.  547. 


THE    UNITED    STATES    OK    AMERICA.  41  I 

1776.  Mission  San  Juan  Capistrano  founded  November  ist.  All 
of  these  three  Missions  are  in  the  present  county  of  Los  Angeles. 
There  were  twenty-one  Missions  (altogether)  in  California. 

17S0.  Filipe  de  Neve,  Governor  of  California,  reports  to  the  vice- 
roy of  New  Spain  that  the  quartz  mines  have  been  abandoned,  be- 
cause quicksilver  is  too  expensive  and  scarce,  and  that  the  miners 
have  gone  to  the  placers  where  mercury  can  be  dispensed  with,  be- 
cause the  gold  is  coarse,  each  man  winning  from  one  to  two  ounces  a 
day.  (Forbes.)  The  locality  of  these  placers  is  nt)t  known,  but  it  is 
suspected  that  they  were  between  Mt.  San  Bernardino  and  the  Col- 
orado river. 

1786-9.  Antonio  de  Alcedo,  in  his  Geography,  mentions  several 
large  nuggets  of  gold  which  were  found  in  California  previous  to  this 
date. 

1797.  Mission  San  Fernando  Rev,  Alta  California,  founded  Sept. 
8th.  It  was  possibly  about  this  time  that  the  placers  of  the  San  Fer- 
nando Valley  were  discovered.  "  The  padres  in  charge  of  the  Mission 
discouraged  the  digging  of  gold  as  having  a  demoralising  tendency 
upon  their  flocks."     Mineral  Resources,  1872,  p.  108. 

18 1 4.  A  silver  mine  was  discovered  and  worked  this  year  in  Sal- 
inas Valley,  Alta  California.  This  mine  is  still  worked  by  the  Hart- 
nell  family.  Information  from  J.  A.  Forbes,  of  San  Francisco.  In 
1802.  a  silver  vein  was  worked  in  the  Olizal  or  Alisal  district,  Gaba- 
lan  Mountains,  Monterey  county.  (De  Groot.)  It  proved  unprofit- 
able.    Mineral  Resources,  1867,  p.  13. 

1814.  About  this  time  a  silver  mine  was  worked  in  what  is  now 
Ventura  county,  Alta  California.  A  tunnel  was  run  in  about  300  or 
400  feet,  and  the  sides  "coyoted,"  or  irregularly  stoped.  This  mine 
was  re-discovered  in  1886,  together  with  ruins  of  old  smelting  works 
and  a  silver  brick  weighing  about  a  pound.  Ventura  "  Free  Press," 
December  0,  1S86. 

1815.  Will.  Phillips  notices  gold  in  California.  Calvert's  "Gold 
Rocks  of  P>ritain,"  p.  10. 

1815.  The  Sierra  Buttes  gold  quartz  mines  in  Alta  California 
worked  this  year,  the  quartz  being  crushed  in  arastras.  Henry  Janin, 
in  "  Mineral  Resources,"  1870,  p.  60. 

18 — .  In  the  early  part  of  the  19th  century  silver  mines  were 
worked  at  Cacachilos,  Las  Virgenes,  La  Buena  Mujer,  and  La  Trui- 
chera,  in  Lower  California.  All  of  these  locations  were  abandoned 
during  the  Revolution,     Forbes. 

18 — .  At  St)reta  (Lower  California,  northern  part),  a  man  named 
Garraisal  worked  a  rich  copper-mine  called  *'  El  Sauce."  There  were 
other  copper  mines  worked  in  Lower  California  at  this  period.  Forbes. 

1820.  Rancho  San  Bernardino  founded  as  a  branch  of  San  (iabriel 
Mission,  Alta  California. 

1822.  Mexico  throws  off  Spanish  rule.  Taxes  from  the  Missions 
exacted  by  the  revolutionary  government.  Priests'  salaries  stopped. 
"Pious  funds  "  declared  forfeited  to  the  government.  Decline  of 
the  Missions. 


412  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

1823.  The  mines  of  San  Ydelfonso  and  Pascal,  in  the  northern  part 
Lower  California,  worked  by  J.  Maritorena,  and  those  of  San  Pedro 
and  San  Jacinta  worked  by  Feliz  Caballera,  a  missionary  priest  of 
Santa  Tomas.     Forbes. 

1824.  Gen.  M.  G.  Vallejo,  who  came  to  California  in  1810,  says 
that  in  1824,  while  he  was  on  a  military  expedition  to  the  King  and 
Kern  rivers,  he  found  a  Russian  living  between  these  rivers  who  was 
well  supplied  with  mining  tools  and  implements,  and  who  had  long 
been  mining  for  gold  in  that  vicinity.  Gen.  Vallejo  himself  for  many 
years  from  this  time  remitted  gold-dust  to  the  authorities  in  Mexico, 
but  whether  from  the  Russian's  mines  or  elsewhere  is  not  stated. 
Mineral  Resources,  1884,  p.  547. 

1824.  Capt.  Walter  Comstock,  a  whaler  in  the  employ  of  Grinnell, 
Minturn  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  says  that  he  brought  gold  from  Cali- 
fornia in  1824,  and  that  nearly  every  vessel  which  put  into  the  har- 
bour of  San  Francisco  brought  away  samples  of  gold.  Mineral  Re- 
sources, 1884,  p.  547. 

1825.  In  the  museum  of  the  Guadalupe  Friars  at  Zacatecas,  Mexico, 
there  was  formerly  a  gold  nugget  about  the  size  and  shape  of  a  pigeon's 
egg,  which  had  been  fetched  from  California  by  one  of  the  friars. 
Mineral  Resources,  1884,  p.  547. 

1825.  Gold  and  silver  mines  at  St.  Ysidoro,  35  miles  east  of  San 
Diego,  Alta  California,  worked  this  year  by  a  Mexican  miner  from 
Guanaxuato.    Notes  to  Wyld's  Map  of  California,  London,  1849,  P  ^4- 

1825.  J.  S.  Smith,  a  trapper  employed  by  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany, crossed  the  Plains  this  year,  followed  the  river  now  called  the 
Humboldt,  got  through  the  Sierras  near  what  is  now  known  as  the 
old  Emigrant  Road  at  the  head  of  the  Truckee,  reached  the  Sacra- 
mento Valley,  and  striking  south-west,  passed  through  San  Jose  to 
San  Diego.  On  his  return,  he  crossed  the  Sierras  near  Walker's  Pass, 
then  to  Mono  Lake,  and  then  eastward  to  Great  Salt  Lake.  "On 
this  portion  of  his  route,"  probably  meaning  from  Walker's  Pass  to 
Mono  Lake,  ''he  found  placer  gold  in  quantities  and  brought  much 
of  it  with  him  to  the  encampment  on  Green  River."  Thos.  Sprague 
in  "United  States  Mineral  Resources,"  1867,  p.  305. 

1828.  Gold  diggings  were  reopened  this  year  at  San  Ysidoro,  San 
Bernardino  county,  California.     Mineral  Resources,  18S4,  p.  547. 

1833.  Legal  abolition  of  the  Missions.  Renewal  of  mining  and  ex- 
ploration. The  Yaqui  and  Mayo  Lidians  hunted  down  as  mine-slaves. 
Lidian  outbreaks. 

1834.  In  the  latter  part  of  1833,  or  the  beginning  of  1834,  J.  P. 
L.  Leese  brought  from  Taos,  New  Mexico,  to  Los  Angeles,  Alta  Cali- 
fornia, a  considerable  quantity  of  grain  gold,  the  product  of  the  New 
Mexican  placers. 

1834.  About  the  same  time  one  Palacios  brought  into  Los  Angeles, 
from  Guaymas,  several  bricks  of  silver  and  some  placer  gold,  both 
having  been  produced  in  Mexico.  Two  lots  of  this  placer  gold  aggre- 
gated about  $10,000  in  value.  A  portion  of  this  was  exported  by  the 
merchants  of  Los  Angeles,  chiefly  to  Boston;  a  portion  was  sold  to 


THE    UNITKU    STATES    OK    AMERICA.  413 

tne  jewelers  in  and  about  Los  Angeles,  wliile  another  portion  was  cast 
into  counterfeit  Columbian  doublons.  J.  J.  Warner,  of  Los  Angeles, 
in  San  Francisco  "Bulletin,"  Sept.  7,  1881. 

1836.  A  silver  mine  "east  of  St.  Inez,"  Santa  Barbara  county, 
Alta  California,  was  discovered  ])revious  to  this  date;  "  but  it  has  been 
abandoned."  London  Penny  Encyc,  1836,  cited  in  Appleton's  Amer- 
ican Encyc,  article  "California." 

1837.  In  this  year  one  of  the  padres  of  the  recently  abolished 
MissitMis  endeavoured,  through  Mr.  Young  Anderson,  to  obtain  Eng- 
lish capital  to  work  the  mines  in  San  Fernando  Valley.  Owing  to 
the  remoteness  of  the  mines  and  the  recent  unfortunate  experience 
of  English  capitalists  in  Me.xico,  this  endeavour  failed. 

1838.  A  man,  whose  testimony  in  the  Bower's  poisoning  case,  1886, 
was  refused  credence,  and  who  was  afterwards  arrested  upon  a  charge 
of  theft  at  San  Diego,  but  who,  nevertheless,  may  have  told  the  truth 
in  this  case,  informed  the  "Commercial"  newspaper  that  the  i)laccrs 
of  Santa  Feliciana  were  worked  by  one  Francisco  Garcia  of  Los.Vn- 
geles,  in  1838. 

1838.  The  Mexican  government  commences  to  grant  patents  for 
lands  where  placer  gold  had  been  found  in  San  Fernando  Valley. 

1840.  A  gold  quartz  mine  at  Francisquito,  near  the  Mission  and 
valley  of  San  Fernando,  was  worked  this  year  by  a  Frenchman  named 
Carlos  Baric.  The  croppings  of  the  vein  extended  sixteen  milesalong 
the  ravine.  M.  Baric  produced  from  his  mine  an  ounce  of  gold  per 
day.  (Notes  from  Wyld's  Map  of  California,  London,  1S49,  pp.  14, 
17,  30.)  The  mines  at  Cahuenga,  same  Mission,  had  not  been  worked 
for  want  of  mercury.     Ibid.,  p.  31. 

1840.  Don  Juan  Bandini,  of  San  Diego,  worked  some  copper  mines 
at  All  Saint's  Bay,  and  others  at  San  Antonio,  near  the  Mission  Guada- 
loupe,  about  seventy  miles  below  San  Diego.  These  were  abandoned 
in  1S44  owing  to  the  troubles  during  the  administration  of  Governor 
Manuel  Micheltoreno.     Forbes. 

1841.  In  the  early  part  of  this  year  Don  Andres  Castillero,  a  na- 
tive of  Mexico,  a  man  of  scientific  attainments  and  mineralogical 
knowledge,  travelling  from  Los  Angeles  to  Santa  Barbara,  saw  and 
gathered  up, near  the  rancho  of  Las  Virgcnes.some  mineral  specimens, 
which  he  exhibited  in  Santa  Barbara,  and  said  that  gent-rally,  if  not 
invariably,  placer  gold  existed  wherever  this  class  of  pebbles  were 
found. 

In  the  month  of  June,  184 1.  two  vaqueros  (herdsmen)  of  a  neigh- 
bouring ranch,  while  riding  over  the  ranch  of  San  Francisquito.  dis- 
mounted from  their  horses  by  the  sitle  of  a  rivulet  to  give  them  a 
breathing  spell,  and  seeing  a  bed  of  wild  onions  they  engaged  ingath- 
ering some  of  them.  While  so  doing,  one  of  them,  by  name  Francisco 
Lopez,  who  had  been  present  and  saw  the  pebbles  which  Castillero 
had  said  was  an  indication  of  gold  placers,  noticed  some  of  them  here 
and  said  to  his  companion:  "  Look  at  this;  there  is  gold  here,  for  I 
heard  Don  Andres  Castillero  say  that  there  was  gold  to  be  found  where- 
ever  these  little  stones  exist  ";  and  immediately  scooping  up  a  hand- 


414  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

ful  of  the  sand  and  gravel  which  had  been  loosened  by  polling  up  the 
onions,  he  rubbed  it  with  his  other  hand,  and  sure  enough  he  found 
in  his  handful  of  sand  a  grain  of  gold. 

On  their  return  to  Santa  Barbara  these  men  took  with  them  a  few 
dollars  worth  of  gold  which  they  had  obtained  from  the  gravel.  The 
news  of  the  discovery  of  gold  soon  spread  from  Santa  Barbara,  and 
people  from  San  Diego  to  San  Luis  Obispo  hurried  to  the  newly-dis- 
covered placers.  Although  few  or  none  of  the  native  Californians  had 
any  practical  knowledge  of  gold-washing,  there  were,  at  the  time  of 
this  discovery,  quite  a  number  of  natives  of  Sonora  and  other  parts 
of  Mexico  scattered  over  Alta  California,  and  especially  in  the  south- 
ern part  of  it,  who  had  worked  in  placers.  A  large  part  of  the  exten- 
sive country  drained  by  the  Santa  Clara  river  (Ventura  county)  was 
now  prospected,  and  gold  obtained  in  many  places.  During  the  first 
two  rainy  seasons  following  the  discovery,  some  hundreds  of  people 
were  profitably  engaged  in  mining,  and  gold  was  brought  into  Los 
Angeles  by  miners  and  sold  there  every  year,  from  1841  to  the  dis- 
covery of  the  richer  and  broader  gold-fields  of  Central  California  in 
1848,  which  last  soon  caused  the  abandonment  of  the  less  productive 
placers  of  San  Francisquito.  The  late  Abel  Stearns,  then  a  merchant 
of  Los  Angeles,  bought  a  good  deal  of  Francisquito  gold.  He  sent  a 
small  part  of  it  to  the  mint  of  Philadelphia.  The  original  receipt  or 
certificate  of  its  deposit  was  some  years  ago  donated  (I  believe)  to  the 
California  Pioneers'  Society,  at  whose  rooms,  I  presume,  it  can  be 
seen.  J.  J.  Warner,  of  Los  Angles,  in  San  Francisco  "Bulletin," 
Sept.  7,  1881. 

1841.  Mr.  James  D.  Dana,  the  mineralogist  of  Com.  Wilkes'  Expe- 
dition, which  visited  the  Coast  this  year,  published  a  book  in  1842, 
and  mentioned  in  it  that  gold  had  been  found  in  the  Sacramento  Valley. 

1842,  April  4.  Date  of  the  first  mining  "  location  "  which  appears 
in  the  public  records  of  Alta  California.  This  "location"  was  made 
by  Lopez,  Cotta,and  Bormudes,  and  was  for  a  gold  placer  in  San  Fer- 
nando Valley.  The  original  application  and  "location  "  is  now  in 
the  United  States  Surveyor  General's  ofifice,  San  Francisco.    Forbes. 

1846.  Mr.  Thomas  O.  Larkin,  the  U.  S.  Consul  at  Monterey,  re- 
ported that  gold,  silver  and  other  mineral  deposits  were  to  be  found 
"all  over  California."     "Mineral  Resources,"  1867,  p.  14. 

1847.  Com.  Sloat  communicated  an  article  to  "  Hunt's  Merchants' 
Magazine,"  of  New  York,  in  which  the  presence  of  gold  in  California 
was  indicated. 

1847.  John  (afterwards  General)  Bidwell,  at  that  time  the  agent 
of  Capt.  Sutter,  and  who,  many  years  later,  lived  at  Chico,  having 
visited  the  placers  of  San  Fernando  Valley,  and  observed  the  man- 
ner of  working  them, and  suspecting  the  presence  of  gold  farther  north, 
searched  for  it  in  the  foot-hills  on  the  line  of  the  Cosumnes  River, 
but  without  success. 

1847.  Further  discoveries  of  gold  near  Los  Angeles.  (Wyld,  p.17.) 
These  were  probably  made  by  the  Mormons,  who  emigrated  from 
Utah  through  the  Cajon  Pass,  to  San  Bernardino,  near  which  place 


THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA.  415 

(Lytle  Creek)  sonic  Mormons  worked  a  placer  mine  for  many  years, 
so  late  as  1890. 

184S,  January  18.  (The  Pioneer  Society  of  New  York  now  keep 
this  anniversary  on  January  24th.)  James  Marshall,  who  had  also 
previously  suspected  the  presence  of  gold  in  the  northern  foot-hills, 
found  a  large  nugget  of  that  metal  in  the  tail-race  of  Cajit.  Sutter's 
mill  on  the  American  river.  'IMiis  was  the  great  discovery  which 
opened  a  new  rera  in  the  history  of  the  precious  metals,  money,  prices 
and  industry  throughout  the  world. 

One  of  the  earliest-written  reports  of  Marshall's  discovery  is  found 
in  Dr.  J.  Trywhitt  Brooks's  "  Four  Months  Among  the  Gold  Find- 
ers"; a  book  published  in  London  in  1849,  and  long  since  out  of 
print.  Brooks  visited  Sutter's  Fort  in  May,  1848,  and  Sutter  told 
him  the  story  of  the  discovery.  Sutter's  version  as  given  by  Brooks 
was  that  he  was  sitting  in  his  room  at  the  fort  one  afternoon,  when 
Marshall,  whom  he  supposed  to  be  at  the  mill,  forty  miles  up  the 
.American  River,  suddenly  burst  in  upon  him.  Marshall  was  so  wildly 
e.xcited  that  Sutter,  suspecting  that  he  was  crazy,  looked  to  see  whether 
his  rifle  was  within  reach.  Marshall  declared  that  he  had  made  a  dis- 
covery that  would  give  them  both  "  millions  and  millions  of  dollars." 
Then  he  drew  his  sack  and  poured  out  a  handful  of  nuggets  on  the 
table.  Sutter,  when  he  had  tested  the  metal  and  found  that  it  was 
gold,  became  almost  as  excited  as  Marshall.  He  eagerly  asked  if  the 
workmen  at  the  mill  knew  of  the  discovery.  Marshall  declared  that 
he  had  not  spoken  to  a  single  person  about  it.  They  bcjth  agreed  to 
keep  it  secret.  Ne.xt  day  Sutter  and  Marshall  arrived  at  the  saw-mill. 
The  day  after  their  arrival  they  prospected  the  bars  of  the  river  and 
the  channels  of  some  of  the  dry  creeks,  and  found  gold  in  all. 

"On  our  return  to  the  mill,"  says  Sutter,  "we  were  astonished  by 
the  work  people  coming  up  to  us  in  a  body  and  showing  us  some 
flakes  of  gold  similar  to  those  we  had  ourselves  procured.  Marshall 
tried  to  laugh  the  matter  off  with  them  and  to  persuade  them  that 
what  they  had  found  was  only  some  shining  mineral  of  trifling  value; 
but  one  of  the  Indians,  who  had  worked  at  a  gold  mine  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  La  Paz,  Lower  California, cried  out,  '  Oro!  Oro! '  and  the 
secret  was  out  " 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 


AUSTRALASIA. 


Gold  discovered  in  1851 — Rush  to  the  diggings — Ticket-of-leave  men — Statistics 
of  the  production — The  discovery  due,  not  to  scientific  prevision,  but  to  chance — 
Nuggets — Prices — Licenses — Taxes — The  chimerical  republic  of  1854 — Wanton  and 
cruel  destruction  of  native  life — Cost  of  production — Chronology. 

PLACER  gold  was  discovered  on  the  Macquarie  River,  New  South 
Wales,  in  February,  185 1.  By  the  first  of  June  following  there 
were  upwards  of  1,000  men  in  the  diggings.  On  the  loth  of  June 
gold  was  discovered  on  a  tributary  of  the  River  Loddon,  Victoria; 
on  the  2oth  of  July  at  Mount  Alexander,  Victoria;  on  the  8th  of  Au- 
gust at  Mount  Buninyong,  Victoria;  and  on  the  8th  of  September  at 
Ballarat,  Victoria.  In  the  month  of  October  upwards  of  7,000  miners 
were  at  work.  By  the  end  of  the  year  the  number  of  persons  in  all 
the  placers  of  Victoria  was  from  15,000  to  17,000,  and  some  $6,500, - 
000  worth  of  gold  (mint  value)  had  been  taken  out.  In  1852  the  num- 
ber of  miners  had  swollen  to  something  like  150,000  (including  about 
9,000  ticket-of-leave  convicts),  when,  notwithstanding  the  extraordin- 
ary production  of  that  year,  it  was  found  that  on  the  average  gold- 
digging  was  unprofitable; and  many  persons  left  the  workings  to  en- 
gage in  other  pursuits.  Nevertheless,  their  places  were  soon  filled  by 
new  adventurers. 

Although  gold-fields  were  subsequently  discovered  in  several  other 
of  the  Australasian  colonies,  both  the  total  production  and  the  miners 
employed  declined  from  the  year  1856,  until  December,  1879,  when 
the  former  scarcely  exceeded  $28,000,000  a  year,  and  the  latter  num- 
bered 37,553  men, of  whom  28,443  were  Europeans  and  9, 1 10  Chinese. 
In  1886  the  mines  reached  their  lowest  point  of  productiveness,  and 
for  many  years  they  continued  with  little  increase,  until  1894,  when 
they  produced  about  $40,000,000  a  year,  a  sum  which,  in  the  course 
of  the  six  years  following,  was  doubled;  so  that  at  the  present  time 
Australasia  is  throwing  upon  the  mints  of  the  world  no  less  than 
$80,000,000  in  gold. 


AUSTRALASIA.  417 

The  following  Table  shows  the  production  of  goKl  in  all  the  Aus- 
tralasian Colonies  from  the  discovery  of  the  placers  in  1S51  to  the 
present  time: 

Anntai.  Production  of  Gold  in  Atstralasia. 

Sums  in    Troy  ounci's  fine,  worth  S-O.67  per  ounce. 

Year.    Ounces.     Year.    Ounces,    Year.    Ounces.     Year.    Ounces.    Year.  Ounces. 

1851        328.457    1S61    2.479,298  1S71    2,234,298  1881     1,470,325    1891  1,519.059 

52  2,856,863        62    2,559,150       72    2,034.432       82    1,422,289        92  1,652.440 

53  3.028,778        63    2.566,230       73    1.878.895       83    1.313,513        93  1.726,438 

54  2,259,882        64    2.247.454       74    1.617,227       84    1.368,371        94  2.060.069 

55  2,751.403        65    2,305.928       75    1,537.664       85    1,327.473        95  2,167.117 

56  2.979,276        66    2,366,871       76    1,356,220       86    1,275,956        96  2,185,676 

57  2,775,271        67    2,264,672       77    1,217,194       87    1,326,480        97  2,695,562 

58  2,664.838        68    2,372,446       7S    1.411,677       88    1,338,836        98  3,263.313 

59  2,470,570  69  2,217,812  79  1,397,500  89  1.600,319  99  4,104,330 
1S60    2,403,647    1S70    1.923,726  1880    1,459,069   1890    1,460,911    1900  3,840,826 

Remarks. — Queensland  is  not  included  in  the  annual  returns  until  187S.  Previous 
to  that  year  the  total  produce  of  Queensland,  not  separable  into  years,  is  given  by  the 
Royal  Mint  at  2,435,163  fine  ounces,  equal  to  about   fifty  million  dollars. 

In  the  United  States  Consular  Reports  for  May,  1901,  the  following  figures  are 
given  for  the  auriferous  production  of  Australasia  :  1890.  1.587.947  oz.;  1893,1,876.563 
oz.;  1894,  2,239,20502.;  1896,  2,375,735  oz.;  1897,2,929.95902.;  1898.3.547,07902.; 
1899,  4.461,105  oz.;  1900  (a  retrogression),  4,174,811  oz.  It  is  presumed  that  these 
quantities  relate  to  crude  gold.  Those  in  the  Table  relate  to  fine  gold.  The  great 
increase  since  i8g6  is  attributed  to  the  discoveries  in  NVestern  Australia.  The  pro- 
portion yielded  by  vein,  quartz,  or  reef  mining  was.  in  1851.  nil;  1S53,  about  one- 
eighth  ;  1S70,  about  three-sevenths  (Withers) ;  at  the  present  time  about  three-fourths. 

The  proportions  contributed  by  the  various  colonies  in  the  year 
1900  were  as  follows,  the  quantities  being  in  ounces  crutie  :  New  South 
AVales,  345,000;  New  Zealand,  371,993;  Queensland,  951,065;  South 
Australia, 29,397  ;  Tasmania,  89,000;  Victoria,  807,407;  Western  Aus- 
tralia, 1,580,949;  total,  4, 174,81 1. 

It  has  been  frequently  claimed  that  the  discovery  of  gold  was  owing 
to  the  observations  of  Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  in  1844,  concerning 
the  similarity  between  the  geological  formation  of  the  .Australian  and 
Ural  mountains.  The  plain  fact  is  that  gold  was  discovered  and  that 
the  discovery  was  made  public  and  notorious,  before  Murchison  pub- 
lished his  observations.  Not  only  this,  but  Mr.  Phillips  communi- 
cated the  fact  to  Sir  R.  Murchison  in  1841.  Murchison  also  held  that 
gold  is  confined  to  Lower  Silurian  strata,  into  which  it  did  not  make 
its  appearance  until  just  before  the  time  of  the  Drift.  This  theory 
has  been  controverted  by  Mr.  Hartt  in  his  "Gold  of  Nova  Scotia  of 
pre-carboniferous  age,"  who  says:  "As  the  gold  of  Nova  Scotia  was 
probably  introduced  into,  or  assumed  its  present  form  in,  the  quartz 
veins  at  the  time  of  the  metamorphism  of  the  Silurian  rocks,  which 
metamorphism  was  pre-carboniferous,  I  have  doubted  the  correctness 


4l8  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

of  this  theory  (of  Murchison  and  others).  The  occurrence  of  gold 
in  the  carboniferous  rocks  at  Corbitt's  Mill  shows  that  it  (the  theory) 
is  not  to  be  applied  to  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia."  Says  Mr. Whit- 
ney: "According  to  this  eminent  authority  (Murchison)  gold  in  pay- 
ing quantities  is  exclusively  confined  to  the  Palaeozoic  rocks.  .  .  . 
It  was  also  a  favourite  dictum  of  this  geologist  that  auriferous  quartz- 
veins  are  a  superficial  phenomenon,  and  that  mines  of  this  metal  would 
not  hold  in  depth  as  persistently  as  those  of  other  metals.  The  dis- 
coveries of  the  California  Survey,  in  regard  to  the  age  of  the  gold- 
bearing  formation  of  that  State,  have  entirely  refuted  the  (until  1S64) 
generally  accepted  theory  of  the  exclusively  Palaeozoic  age  of  rocks 
of  this  kind,  although  this  fact  was  not  admitted  by  Murchison  in  his 
latest  publications."    Cited  in  Lock,  755,  780. 

From  these  statements  it  would  appear  that  Murchison  made  no 
discovery,  with  relation  to  gold-bearing  rocks,  which  proved  to  be  of 
any  practical  value,  and  that  in  respect  of  this  matter  he  was  a  greatly 
overrated  man,  fond  of  notoriety  and  praise,  which  he  was  willing  to 
accept  as  his  due,  even  when  it  rightfully  belonged  to  others.  Mur- 
chison was  also  mistaken  in  regard  to  the  depth  of  gold  deposits. 
Vast  quantities  of  this  metal  have  been  taken  from  quartz  mines  in 
California,  Nevada  and  other  American  States,  at  depths  of  between 
two  and  three  thousand  feet,  and  from  mines  in  Australia  at  still 
greater  depths,  for  example,  the  Lansell,  which  is  now  (1901)  down 
3,350  feet  and  going  lower. 

In  regard  to  the  early  discoveries  of  gold  in  Australasia,  a  dispatch 
of  the  Lientenant-Governor  of  the  Colony  to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
dated  Sept.  2,  1840,  enclosed  a  report  from  Count  Strzelecki,  stating 
that  he  had  discovered  auriferous  pyrites  in  the  vale  of  Clwydd,  in 
1839. '  The  Rev.  W.  B.  Clarke  announced  his  discovery  of  the  metal 
in  the  same  colony  in  1841.  The  natives  knew  of  it;  and  made  their 
arrow-heads  of  gold.  The  white  shepherds  found  gold ;  but  prudently 
refrained  from  searching  for  more.*  In  a  despatch,  dated  June  11, 
185 1,  from  Sir  C.  A.  Fitzroy,  Governor  of  New  South  Wales,  to  the 
Earl  Grey,  it  is  stated  that  a  prospector,  named  Smith,  had  discov- 
ered gold  in  1849.  Yet  the  great  discoveries  of  1851  were  not  owing 
to  any  of  these  observations,  but  to  the  prospecting  of  a  California 

'  The  Count  afterwards  stated  that  he  was  urged  by  the  Governor  to  keep  the  dis- 
covery secret,  for  fear  it  would  impair  the  discipline  of  the  45,000  convicts  on  the 
island.  "  Thirty  Years  in  New  South  Wales  and  Victoria,"  quoted  by  Phillips  on 
"  Mining."     The  secret  transpired;  but  it  was  hushed  up. 

^  Some  of  the  shepherds  had  picked  up  pieces  of  gold  in  Victoria,  but  they  wisely 
paid  no  further  attention  to  the  matter.     Phillips,  103. 


AUSTRALASIA. 


419 


miner  named  Hargreaves.  Years  afterward  the  colonial  governments 
recognized  him  as  the  principal  discoverer  of  gold  by  rewarding  him 
with  the  sum  of  ^10,000. 

Australia  was  not  a  solitude  when  Hargreaves  visited  it.  The  abor- 
igines had  roamed  its  mountains  and  encamped  upon  its  auriferous 
river  banks  from  time  immemorial,  without  troubling  themselves 
aboutnts  gold.  It  had  been  a  penal  colony  of  Great  Britain  since 
1788,  and  at  the  period  of  the  discovery  of  gold  it  contained  a  pop- 
ulation partly  composed  of  free  colonists  engaged  in  agriculture  and 
sheep-farming,  whose  settlements  stretched  in  every  direction;  who, 
before  the  gold  discoveries,  had  been  engaged,  among  other  indus- 
tries, in  mining  copper;  and  who,  therefore,  had  a  motive  to  further 
prospect  the  country  for  metals.  Hargreaves  was  no  more  clever  than 
the  rest;  he  was  simply  in  luck. 

Said  Mr.  Patterson,  in  the  Westminster  Review,  1883:  The  story 
of  the  Australasian  gold-fields  is  in  many  respects  similar  to  that  of 
the  Californian.  The  gold  discoveries  were  at  first  suppressed  by 
government,  "fearing  lest  a  gold  mania  and  gambling  spirit  would 
without  any  adequate  return  divert  the  population  from  its  course  of 
steady  industry;"  a  fear  which  was  justified  by  events,  fur  in  the  course 
of  a  few  months  half  the  male  population  of  Victoria  had  left  their 
legitimate  occupations  and  gone  hot-footed  in  search  of  the  precious 
metal.  Workshops  stood  idle,  business  places  were  closed,  ships  lay 
empty  at  the  wharves,  tiade  was  at  a  standstill,  business  was  allowed 
to  drift  where  it  would;  there  was  but  one  thing  thought  of,  and  that 
was  gold,  until  the  number  engaged  in  this  new  industry  in  Victoria 
amounted  to  100,000  persons.  This  great  rush  lasted,  however,  only 
a  few  years;  the  surface  diggings  soon  became  exhausted;  indivitlual 
labour  was  rendered  unprofitable  and  capital  and  machinery  became 
necessary;  meanwhile,  the  prices  of  food  and  other  necessaries  rose 
enormously,  flour  was  sold  as  high  as  ^44  a  ton  in  1855,  and  a  cab- 
bage cost  5s.  Bricks  rose  from  30s.  the  thousand  to  ^18,  and  all 
other  commodities  iti  proportion;  but  these  wants  were  soon  supplied 
by  importation  ;  the  famine  prices  declined,  and  eventually  the  supply 
became  greater  than  the  demand,  anil  many  merchants  and  shop- 
keepers were  ruined,  one  firm  losing  ^^90,000  in  a  twclverronth. 

In  the  Australasian  g(jld-fields,  however,  the  prizes  were  tremen- 
dous. One  nugget  found  at  Ballarat  weighed  2,195  ounces,  and  was 
sold  at  Melbourne  for  ^9,325.  Many  others  were  but  little  inferior 
to  it,  and  every  adventurer  worked  on,  hoping  that  he  might  be  the 
lucky  finder  of  some  such  great  prize !  Now  that  the  fever  has  ceased, 
what  are  the  results?  An  enormous  increase  in  the  population,  wealth, 
industry,  and  commercial  prosperity  of  every  land  wherein  gold  is 
found  in  jiaying  (juantities  is  certain  to  follow  the  discovery,  but  only 
after  many  have  suffered  untold  hardships,  privations,  sickness,  and 
death.     It  would  seem  as  though  Nature  had  spread  out  her  gold- 


420  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

field  as  a  tempting  bait  to  the  human  race,  in  the  same  manner  as 
carniverous  plants  display  their  deadl}-  leaves,  covered  with  luscious 
fluid  to  tempt  the  unwary  insect  to  destruction. 

When  the  great  discovery  took  place  it  was  claimed  by  the  author- 
ities that  all  gold  deposits  belonged  of  right  to  the  Crown;  but  Har- 
greaves, between  whom  and  the  Royal  Prerogative  rolled  sixteen  thou- 
sand miles  of  ocean,  ridiculed  such  claims  as  belonging  to  a  past  age. 
As  he  was  a  man  "  strong  in  counsel  and  Californian  experience,"  and 
he  voiced  the  sentiment  of  a  lawless  and  resolute  community,  the 
Australasian  authorities  deemed  it  prudent  to  lower  the  royal  demands 
to  the  price  of  a  digger's  license,  costing  thirty  shillings  a  month. 
The  mere  doubling  of  this  trifling  fee  afterwards  occasioned  a  Revo- 
lution; and  but  for  the  detachment  of  armed  police  and  troops  who 
stornied  the  Eureka  Stockade,  Australia  in  1854  would  have  become 
an  independent  republic.  It  had  already  declared  this  desire  and  had 
gone  so  far  as  to  raise  a  distinctive  flag. 

At  first  the  fees  for  mining-licences  were  paid  in  gold-dust,  there 
being  no  money  in  circulation.  "  Coin  was  rare  and  the  digger  gen- 
erally bartered  his  gold-dust  for  goods.  Change  there  was  none;  and 
reckonings  partook  of  the  largeness  of  view  which  ignored  minute 
calculations."  During  the  early  days  of  Golden  Point,  the  store- 
keepers, for  example,  Burbank,  and  Colac,  issued  their  promissory 
notes,  payable  in  money  at  Melbourne  or  Geelong  "one  day  after 
sight."  These  notes  sometimes  circulated  in  the  place  of  money;  but 
as  the  issuers  refused  to  accept  one  another's  notes,  they  failed  to 
command  a  general  currency  and  were  discarded.  Boxes  of  matches 
and  potatoes  at  3d.  each,  were  used  tor  small  change.  In  1853  ^x 
notes  were  in  circulation,  but  it  is  not  stated  who  were  the  issuers. 
Withers,  49. 

In  the  first  edition  of  the  present  work  attention  was  called  to  the 
cruel  and  wanton  destruction  of  native  life  by  the  Spanish  and  Por- 
tuguese gold-hunters  in  America  and  the  Orient,  as  well  as  by  the 
English  in  Australasia.  An  English  writer  of  eminence  was  quoted, 
who  said  of  the  murdered  natives  of  New  South  Wales,  "  They  have 
been  wantonly  butchered;  and  someof  the  christian  whites  considered 
it  a  pastime  to  go  out  and  shoot  them.  I  questioned  a  person  from 
Port  Stephens.  .  .  .  His  answer  was,  '  Oh,  we  used  to  shoot  them 
like  fun!'"("  Breton,  "in  Bishop  Whateley's  Essays  of  Lord  Bacon,  ed. 
1857.  P-  339-)  Twenty  years  have  since  passed.  The  class  of  cruelties 
to  which  allusion  was  made  were  repeated  during  this  interval  in 
South  Africa;  yet,  out  of  the    150,000  pulpits  in  Great  Britain  and 


AUSTRALASIA. 

America,  countries  in  which  this  book  is  not  unknown,  not  one  of 
them  has  ever  raised  its  voice  against  the  crimes  connected  with  the 
search  for  gold;  not  even  against  the  betrayal  and  murder  of  Loben- 
guela. 

Lest  it  should  be  supposed  that  these  infamies  belong  to  a  past  age, 
or  to  inferior  races,  it  becomes  necessary  to  revert  to  some  other 
doings  in  Australasia.  The  lime  is  so  late  as  1S94,  when  the  Cool- 
gardie  deposits  were  discovered  and  fabulous  finds  were  reported  from 
Xinety-mile  Point  and  elsewhere.  Nuggets  of  50  and  100  ounces  were 
found  in  the  possession  of  the  natives,  who  refused  to  tell  whence  they 
were  procured.  These  stories  induced  prospectors  to  push  into  the 
wilderness,  far  beyond  where  white  men  had  ever  been  before.  The 
early  parties  had  scarcely  enough  food  and  water  to  keep  them  alive. 
Some  of  them  were  brought  back  raging  with  fever  and  placed  in  the 
Coolgardie  Hospital.  The  fate  of  these  desperate  men  did  not  deter 
others  from  forming  a  syndicate,  who,  with  heavy  packs  of  provisions, 
water  and  rifles,  started  from  the  extreme  western  limit  of  Coolgardie 
to  penetrate  the  interior.  They  set  out  on  December  ist,  1S94,  and 
nothing  was  heard  from  them  for  over  a  month.  On  January  loth, 
1S95,  Dan  Robertson,  one  of  the  syndicate,  returned  from  a  camp, 
about  120  miles  from  Coolgardie.  He  said  the  syndicate  were  re- 
turning from  a  distant  point  without  luck,  when  Mike  Fitzgerald  dis- 
covered rich  outcroppings  of  gold  ore.  The  men  flew  to  the  place 
and  danced  around  wild  with  excitement,  for  the  (juartz  was  the  rich- 
est they  had  ever  seen.  Robertson  continues:  "  We  found  water  near 
by.  but  our  delight  was  soon  changed  when  one  of  the  men  rushed  up 
and  said  the  blacks  had  stolen  some  of  our  provisions.  Our  joy  changed 
to  fury.  Some  of  the  boys  behaved  like  demons,  and  when  one  of 
them  suggested  that  we  should  go  to  the  nearest  native  camp  and 
take  possession  of  the  provisions  at  the  point  of  our  rifles,  it  seemed 
right  to  every  one.  I  led  the  party,  and  we  came  upon  the  very  tribe 
of  blacks  which  had  stolen  our  provisions.  We  followed  them  to  their 
camp  and  we  butchered  them  like  cattle;  men,  women  and  children. 
\\'e  forgot  that  we  were  men.  The  slings  and  arrows  of  the  blacks 
were  nothing  to  the  deadly  rifles  of  the  white  men.  Prayers  and  en- 
treaties were  in  vain.  The  white  men  showed  no  mercy, and  the  blacks 
were  unable  to  defend  themselves."  San  Francisco  dispatch  to  New 
York  Sun,  March  15,  1895. 

This  butchery  is  described  by  one  of  the  actors.  What  if  it  were 
told  by  one  of  the  sufferers?  What  if  in  fact  no  provisions  were  stolen, 
or  if  they  were  of  trifling  moment,  or  if  the  real  motive  of  the  grue- 


422  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

some  tragedy  was  to  plunder  the  wretched  natives  of  their  gold  trin- 
kets and  arrowheads?    Or  to  disclose  the  source  of  these  baubles? 

These  crimes  are  related  with  no  intent  to  disparage  the  English. 
Similar  crimes  have  been  related  in  this  work  of  the  Romans,  Span- 
iards, the  Portuguese,  the  Hollanders,  the  French  and  the  Americans. 
They  belong  neither  to  races  nor  religion;  they  belong  to  the  pre- 
cious metals  and  especially  to  gold;  because  silver  is  never  found  on 
the  surface  or  in  placers.  Neither  are  they  related  with  intent  to  dis- 
parage gold.  Essentially  they  belong  neither  to  one  nation  nor  to 
one  metal ;  but  to  all  men  engaged  in  the  search  for  hidden  treasures. 
They  are  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  Precious  Metals.  They  serve 
to  illustrate  one  of  the  elements  in  the  Cost  of  their  Production. 
That  element  is  human  life,  not  merely  the  destruction  of  a  few  men, 
but  of  entire  races:  the  Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians  in  ancient 
times,  the  Mexicans  and  Peruvians  in  modern  times,  the  Negros  to- 
day, perhaps  the  Chinese  to-morrow.  Such  crimes  are  worse  than 
wicked;  they  are  idiotic.  They  rob  us  of  what  is  far  more  valuable 
than  gold:  they  rob  us  of  the  national  experience,  of  the  history,  the 
discoveries,  the  inventions,  the  dreams,  if  you  will,  of  the  men  we  have 
murdered. 


AUSTRALASIA. 


423 


CHRONOI.Or.Y  OF  GOI.D  I\  AUSTRALASIA. 

1S14.  Some  convicts  of  Botany  Hay,  New  South  Wales,  having 
found  placer  gold  and  made  the  fact  known,  they  were  tlogged  for 
the  offence  and  threatened  with  further  punishment  unless  they  kept 
quiet  about  the  matter.  It  has  been  publicly  declared  that  Governor 
Phillip  hans^ed  the  first  convict  who  made  the  discovery,  but  no  bet- 
ter authority  for  this  statement  has  been  found  than  a  Peoria  news- 
paper of  March  26,  1897.  Writing  in  1812-15,  Malte-Brun  says  of 
New  Holland  or  Australasia:  "None  of  the  precious  metals  have 
hitherto  been  seen." 

1S33.  Assistant  Surveyor,  James  M'Brian,  found  placer  gold  in 
several  localities  and  publicly  recorded  the  fact. 

1825.  A  convict  found  placer  gold  this  year,  but  was  cautioned 
not  to  make  the  discovery  public. 

183S.  McCulloch,  whose  Geographical  Dictionary  was  completed 
this  year,  says:  "  It  may  be  presumed  from  the  comparatively  small 
amount  of  old  formations  in  the  mountains  (this  is  Murchison's  theory) 
that  they  are  destitute  of  the  precious  metals."  Yet,  he  is  obliged  to 
add  in  a  foot-note,  citing  the  surveys  of  Flinders  and  King:  "Gold 
is  found  at  Timor  (a  small  island  near  the  northern  coast  of  Australia), 
but  the  much  greater  elevation  of  the  Timorean  Mountains  implies 
a  different  composition  from  that  observed  in  Australia.  "  Further  on 
(under  the  head  of  "Timor,")  he  says:  "  Gold  is  found  both  in  grains 
and  large  pieces;  but  the  aborigines  are  said  to  have  a  strong  aver- 
sion to  search  for  it,  and  once  massacred  a  party  of  Dutch  sent  inland 
to  collect  the  metal." 

1839.  Count  Strezlecki  discovered  placer  gold  and  informed  the 
Colonial  Government  of  the  fact,  when  he  was  requested  to  preserve 
silence  on  the  subject,  for  fear  it  woukl  cause  an  outbreak  of  the  con- 
victs at  Botany  Bay. 

1841.  Rev.  W.  B.  Clarke  found  gold  in  the  Macquarie  ami  other 
river  valleys  of  New  South  Wales,  and  in  1844  showed  it  to  Members 
of  the  Legislature.  At  a  subsecpient  ilate,  when  the  discoveries  of 
gold  had  become  numerous  and  known  to  the  world.  Dr.  Clarke  was 
rewarded  by  the  government  of  Australia  as  one  of  the  prominent 
discoverers  of  a  metal  which  had  made  the  fortunes  of  the  colony. 

1844.  In  the  early  part  of  this  year  Mr.  A.  Tolmein  found  placer 
gold  in  Australia. 

1844.  Sir  R.  Murchison  predicted  that  gold  woukl  only  be  found 
the  Silurian  formations  of  Australasia.  Although  this  "prediction  " 
was  made  after  the  presence  of  gold  in  Australasia  was  well  known, 
it  has  no  value,  because  gold  is  found  in  totally  different  formations. 

1848.  Some  gokl  nuggets  found  in  the  alluvium  were  taken  to 
Victoria  and  there  exhibited  in  jewelers*  windows. 


424  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

1S49  Rev.  Dr.  Clarke,  who  had  discovered  gold  in  1841,  wrote  a 
letter  giving  his  reasons  why  he  did  not  deem  it  prudent  at  that  time 
to  make  the  discovery  public.  He  looked  upon  gold-mining  as  only 
fitted  to  make  slaves  of  the  natives,  and  to  this  he  was  opposed. 

1849.  Placer  gold  was  discovered  by  a  shepherd  on  the  Pyrenees 
mountains  of  Australia. 

1849.  Thomas  Chapman  found  a  i6-oz.  gold  nugget,  and  for  fear 
the  authorities  would  deprive  him  of  it,  he  fled  to  Sydney.  His  dis- 
covery was  there  made  public,  but  was  minimized  by  the  authorities. 

1849.  1'h^  discovery  of  gold  in  California  causes  the  departure  of 
some  three  hundred  men  from  Australia.  Landed  property  and 
stocks  of  merchandise  in  Sydney  fall  in  value  by  reason  of  the  di- 
minished demand  which  followed  this  emigration. 

1849.  Some  convicts  having  been  discovered  in  the  act  of  digging 
for  gold,  they  were  stopped  by  the  authorities. 

1849.     A  number  of  quartz  mines  were  discovered  in  this  year. 

185 1.  A  man  named  Austin  found  a  nugget  of  gold  worth  thirty- 
five  pounds  sterling  in  Australia. 

185 1,  Feb.  12.  E.  H.  Hargreaves,  a  California  miner,  discovered 
alluvium  gold  in  New  South  Wales,  at  a  place  called  Summer  Hill 
Creek,  an  affluent  of  the  Macquerie  river.  This  constituted  the  great 
gold  opening  of  Australasia.  After  this  discovery  had  attracted  a 
numerous  and  hardy  population  to  Australasia  and  had  thus  secured 
for  it  advantages  which  without  such  discoveries  may  not  have  fallen 
to  this  remote  part  of  the  world  for  centuries,  the  colonial  authorities 
rewarded  Hargreaves  with  a  present  of  ^^10,000  sterling,  an  action 
whose  generosity  strongly  contrasts  with  the  indifference  and  neglect 
shown  by  the  American  government  toward  Tom  Marshall  and  Capt. 
Sutter,  of  California. 

Hargreaves'  discovery  was  soon  followed  by  others.  In  1853  Aus- 
tralasia rose  to  be  as  great  a  producer  of  gold  as  California.  At  the 
present  time,  including  New  Zealand  and  Tasmania,  it  produces  five 
tiaies  as  much. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 


URITISH    COLUMBIA. 


Movement  of  California  placer  miners  to  the  northward — Discoveries  in  the  Fraser 
River  valley — The  Cariboo  district — The  Kootenay  district — The  Cassiar  district — 
Halcyon  period — The  tundras  of  the  Stickeen — Dispersion  of  prospecting  parties  on 
the  confines  of  Alaska — Beginning  of  quartz-mining — Statistics  of  production. 

THE  discovery  of  gold  in  the  placers  of  California  soon  imparted 
to  the  miners  a  rough  knowledge  of  geology,  practically  suffi- 
cient for  their  calling.  It  was  observed  that  gold  was  to  be  sought  west 
of  the  Mountains,  and  that  "pay-dirt,"  or  gravel  containing  enough 
gold  to  invite  mining,  was  chiefly  to  be  found  in  the  river  valleys,  in 
benches  or  bars,  where  glacial  and  fluvial  activity  had  already  ac- 
complished the  work  of  breaking  down  the  quartz  veins  of  the  moun- 
tains, extracting  the  gold  from  its  matrix  and  depositing  it  in  the  sand 
and  gravel  of  the  valleys,  from  which  it  could  be  readily  extracted  by 
the  rude  processes  of  digging  and  washing.  These  observations  were 
enough  for  placer  miners;  so  that  when  their  claims  ceased  to  yield, 
often  after  lingering  long  enough  over  them  to  lose  all  they  had  ever 
taken  out  of  them,  they  took  up  other  claims,  and  in  default  of  these, 
abandoned  the  district  and  went  prospecting  farther  north.  It  was 
these  prospecting  parties  who  discovered  the  Fraser  River  district 
in  1856,  the  Cariboo  in  i860,  and  the  Cassiar  in  1867. 

However,  gold  had  already  been  discovered  in  Queen  Charlotte 
Islands  in  1849  or  1S50.  Two  years  afterward,  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  sent  a  party  of  miners  to  drive  out  the  Indians  and  explore 
the  diggings;  yet  the  enterprise  failed  of  any  important  results.  The 
Indians  were  duly  shot  down  and  the  Islands  pacified,  but  the  gravel 
did  not  pay,  and  the  vicinity  was  soon  afterwardsabandoned.  In  1S53 
Captain  McLennan's  prospecting  party  discovered  gold  on  the  Simil- 
kameen  River;  but  nothing  came  of  it:  the  gravel  was  too  poor. 

The  great  discovery  took  place  in  1856,  when  a  rich  find  in  the 
Fraser  River  valley  was  reported  to  the  Governor  of  the  Colony.  In 
consequence  of  this  announcement  a  rush  occurred  to  the  diggings: 


426  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

and  this  was  practically  the  beginning  of  mining  in  British  Columbia 
and  the  Northwestern  Territory.  In  1857  further  and  richer  dis- 
coveries were  made  in  the  Fraser  River  valley,  especially  on  the 
Thompson  River,  near  Nicommen,  from  which  district  the  first  quan- 
tity of  gold  was  brought  to  the  refiners.  In  1858  gold  was  discovered 
on  the  Skagit  River;  i859,on  the  Okanagan;  i860, on  Harvey's  Creek, 
in  the  celebrated  Cariboo  district;  and  in  1863  on  Wild  Horse  Creek, 
in  the  equally  celebrated  Kootenay  district.  This  was  the  halcyon 
period  of  mining  in  British  Columbia,  1860-63;  when  these  districts 
were  worked  out,  the  produce,  which  had  reached  nearly  four  million 
dollars  a  year,  began  to  fall  off. 

In  1867  gold  was  discovered  in  the  tundras  of  the  Cassiar  district, 
on  the  Stickeen,  Stekin,or  Francis  River,  lat.54  to  56  N.  It  was  prob- 
ably this  discovery  that  led  to  thesubsequent  prospecting  of  the  Upper 
Yukon  Valley,  on  the  Klondike  and  other  affluents,  in  Alaska.  The 
Cassiar  district  first  became  productive  in  1874,  when  it  yielded  a  mil- 
lion dollars;  in  1875  another  million;  in  1876  and  1877  each  half  a 
million,  when  the  produce  rapidly  fell  to  $150,000  in  1883.  In  the 
following  year  the  placers  were  regarded  as  exhausted.  (Min.  Res., 
1883  and  1884.)  As  the  outlet  to  this  district  is  in  American  Alaska 
(mouth  of  the  Stickeen  River),  the  produce  is  not  always  credited  to 
British  Columbia.     Sometimes  it  is  credited  to  both  countries. 

Most  of  the  gold  produced  in  British  Columbia  is  sent  for  coinage 
to  the  Mint  at  San  Francisco,  which  very  obligingly  does  the  work 
for  nothing.  After  being  coined  into  American  eagles,  the  gold  is 
usually  shipped  to  London  and  there  recoined  into  British  sovereigns. 

Mining  and  prospecting  parties  had  now  gradually  moved  north- 
ward from  California  and  Oregon  through  British  Columbia  to  the 
Stickeen.  Behind  them  were  the  partially  worked  out  and  abandoned 
placers  of  the  West  Coast;  before  them  the  frozen  tundras  of  Alaska, 
their  riches  as  yet  hidden  and  unknown.  The  prospect  was  too  for- 
bidding. Most  of  the  men  gave  up  altogether;  many  died  from  the 
privations  they  had  suffered;  some  went  to  quartz  mining;  others 
drifted  into  less  dangerous  and  hazardous  pursuits  than  prospecting 
for  gold.  After  the  Cassiar  district  was  exploited  the  produce  of  Brit- 
ish Columbia  fell  away  to  half  a  million  dollars  a  year.  In  1895-6 
quartz  mining  began,  when  the  produce  rose  to  about  one  and  a-half 
millions  a  year.  Large  capitals  were  now  invested  in  the  mines(quartz) 
and  machinery  began  to  take  the  place  of  hand  labour.  It  is  yet  to 
be  seen  if  these  ventures  will  prove  remunerative.  The  following 
table  traces  the  development  of  the  product: 


BRITISH    COLUMBIA.  427 

Production  of  Gold  in  British  Coiambia. 

{Sit'tis  in  millions  0/  dollars  and  tt'nths.) 


Year. 

I'roduct. 

Year. 

I'roduct. 

Year. 

I'roduct. 

Year. 

Product, 

1S58 

0.7 

1S6S 

3-4 

1S7S 

1-3 

1888 

0.6 

59 

1.6 

69 

1.8 

79 

1.3 

89 

.6 

i860 

0  n 

1870 

1.3 

18S0 

I.O 

i8qo 

.5 

61 

2.7 

71 

1.8 

81 

I.O 

91 

.4 

62 

2.7 

72 

1.6 

82 

1.0 

92 

.4 

63 

3-9 

73 

1-3 

S3 

.8 

93 

.4 

64 

3-7 

74 

1.3 

8a 

•  7 

94 

.5 

65 

3-5 

75 

2.5 

85 

.7 

95 

1-3 

66 

2.7 

76 

i.S 

86 

•9 

96 

1.8 

1867 

2.5 

1S77 

1.6 

1S87 

.7 

1897 

2.7 

Totals.  26.2  18.9  9.4  9.3 

The  total  product  for  the  years  shown  in  the  table,  1858-97  in- 
clusive, was  $  800,000;  to  the  close  of  the  19th  century  it  may  be 
roughly  estimated  at  $70,000,000.  As  before  stated,  the  increase 
since  1S95  has  been  due  to  cjuartz  or  lode  mining,  which  practically 
began  in  that  year,  all  the  previous  product  having  been  derived  from 
the  jilacers. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  United  States  Consul  at  Victoria, 
dated  March  16,  1901,  concerning  the  mineral  production  of  British 
Columbia  during  the  year  1900, the  numberof  miners  employed  under- 
ground in  the  province  was  2,426,  and  above  ground  1,305,  total, 
3,731.  If  these  were  all  gold  miners, the  entire  produce  of  the  mines 
was  insufficient  to  pay  them  $3  a  day — the  ordinary  wages  in  mining 
camps  on  the  northwestern  coast — to  say  nothing  of  the  capital  in- 
vested in  prospecting,  purchasing,  and  developing  the  mines,  machin- 
ery, supplies,  licenses,  taxes  and  other  outlays.  In  a  word,  if  the 
Consul's  vague  returns  are  correctly  understood,  every  dollar  pro- 
duced from  the  mines  of  British  Columbia  must  have  cost  at  least  two 
dollars.  British  Columbia  is  not  alone  in  this  respect:  the  same  con- 
clusion applies  to  all  gold  (or  silver)  mining  countries  employing  free 
labour.  Mining  for  the  precious  metals  with  free  labour  does  not 
pay;  first  because  the  labourer  is  working  against  an  enormous  accu- 
mulation of  the  precious  metals  which  were  obtained  by  concjuest, 
and  slavery;  second,  he  is  working  against  the  practical  slavery  which 
is  still  tolerated  in  Africa  and  India;  and  third,  because  he  is  work- 
ing against  a  scale  of  prices  which  has  for  its  foundation  not  only  these 
circumstances  but  also  the  creilit  of  the  financial  world  in  the  shape 
of  bank-notes  and  its  power  to  multiply  their  activity  by  means  of  tele- 
graphs and  railways. 

In  1900  the  government  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  in  which  Brit- 
ish Columbia  is  included,  disallowed  or  rcjiealed  the  act  which  for* 


428  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS 

bade  all  except  British  subjects  from  locating  placer  claims.  It  es- 
tablished rules  under  which  all  "free  miners" — by  which  term  it  is 
presumed  is  meant  any  person  not  under  legal  restraint  or  not  aeon- 
tract  labourer — may  take  up  such  claims.  Roughly  speaking,  dis- 
coverers' claims  are  limited  to  300  feet  and  all  others  to  100  feet  in 
length,  along  a  stream,  bank,  bar  or  bench.  Dry  diggings  are  limited 
to  100  feet  square.  The  charge  for  an  individual  miner's  certificate 
(this  is  equivalent  to  a  permit  to  mine)  is  $5;  for  a  stock  company  of 
$100,000  capital  or  less,  $50;  for  other  companies,  $100;  for  a  Crown 
grant,  $5;  for  recording  a  certificate  or  a  claim,  or  an  affidavit,  or 
generally  speaking,  any  paper, the  fee  is  $2.50;  and  when  of  unusual 
length,  30  cents  per  folio  additional.  These  charges  are  not  unreason- 
able. They  will  scarcely  more  than  cover  the  expense  of  maintaining 
that  supervision  and  regulation  of  the  mining  lands  which  the  inter- 
ests of  the  government  and  the  miners  alike  demand.  No  tax  ap- 
pears to  be  placed  upon  the  product,  but  of  course  the  government 
reserves  the  right  to  impose  such  a  tax  in  future,  should  it  deem  fit. 
These  regulations,  which  are  confined  to  British  Columbia  and  do  not 
extend  to  the  Northwestern  Territory,  can  be  consulted  at  greater 
length  in  the  United  States  Consular  Reports  for  1901,  No.  247. 


CHAPTER  XXXI II. 

THK    MYSOKK    AND    TRANSVAAI.    MINES. 

Tractical  enslavement  of  the  Mysore  miners — "Contract  labourers" — Their  wretched 
condition — Their  attempts  to  escape — Wajjes — Discovery  of  the  mines  due  to  wealth 
of  the  neijjhbourinji  tcmpits — Annual  produce  since  18S4 — Mine  tenures — Royalties 
— The  Transvaal  mines — The  war — Disorj^anization  of  the  native  labourers — Closure 
of  the  mines — Royalties  and  exactions  imposed  by  the  Uoers — New  impost  proposed, 
to  the  British  government — Rhodesia — Madagascar. 

THE  practical  enslavement  of  the  Indian  ryot  and  the  literal  «it- 
slavement  of  the  gold  miners  of  Malabar,  which  is  a  part  ot 
Mysore,  are  alluded  to  in  other  i^arts  of  this  work.  (See  Inde.v.)  To 
the  evidences  there  presented  it  may  be  added  that  in  1831  Lieut. 
Nicolson  of  the  British  army  reported  that  at  Nilambar,  in  Mysore, 
"  the  mines  were  worked  by  Korumba  slaves,  who  weresubjectedlto 
horrible  cruelties  if  the  ^old  they  found  was  deficient  in  quantity.'" 
(Lock,  336.)  In  1865  Mr.  Brough  Smyth,  a  British  (Australian)  en- 
gineer, reported  that  the  industry  of  the  Korumbas  had  so  covered 
many  parts  of  Mysore  with  tailings  that  they  resembled  abandoned. 
Australian  washings.'  Finally,  Lock  (340)  said  thatthegokl  washers 
employed  on  the  alluvions  of  Mysore  only  enrnt /cur  a/i/uis  (6d. )  a  day. 
which  maybe  taken  as  an  approximate  measure  of  the  wages  paid  in 
the  Colar  mines  of  Mysore  presently  to  be  mentioned. 

What  is  here  intended  to  be  brought  into  view  is  the  system  of  em- 
ploying contract  labourers,  Indians,  Chinese,  Malays,  Kanakas  and 
Africans,  which  prevails  to-day  in  nearly  all  the  British  dependencies, 
from  Mysore  to  Honduras  and  from  Borneo  to  Johannesburg.  A  re- 
cent writer  in  a  London  periodical,  describing  a  British  tobacco  es- 
tate in  Borneo,  represents  the  manager  as  being  constantly  employed 
in  devising  means  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the  "coolies,"  who  seize 
every  opportunity  to  regain  their  freedom,  each  escape  "meaning  a 
loss  of  about  j£S  to  the  estate."    The  proprietors  of  the  Colar  gold 

'  Gold  in  Sanscrit  is  suvarna  and  hemmn;  in  Kanada  it  is  houua  and  ehinnn;  in 
Tamil  it  \s/>on.  The  names  of  rivers,  hills,  towns,  villages  and  districts  in  many  parts 
of  Mysore,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  India,  proclaim  its  auriferous  character. 


43°  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

mines  take  the  greatest  pains  to  prevent  this  system  of  slaver}^  for 
such  in  effect  it  is,  from  being  known  in  London,  for  fear  of  arousing 
public  opinion  against  its  continuance ;  but  enough  of  it  has  transpired 
to  justify  the  conclusion  that  these  properties  are  worked  by  natives, 
who  are  practically  bought  from  headmen  for  a  premium  and  forcibly 
condemned  to  work  in  the  mines  for  a  pittance  which  is  scarcely  suffi- 
cient to  keep  them  alive  and  cover  their  nakedness.  Such  is  their 
wretched  condition  that  the  year  before  last  (1898)  the  output  of  the 
mines  was  diminished  to  the  extent  of  6,000  ounces,  because  owing  to 
their  poverty  and  inadequate  fare  the  bubonic  plague  broke  out  among 
them  and  rendered  many  of  them  unable  to  work. 

According  to  the  London  Mining  Journal  the  present  cost  per  foot 
of  driving  a  gallery  in  theWynaad  mines  of  Mysore — this  means  blast- 
ing out  and  removing  to  the  surface  7  X  4^28  cubic  feet  of  rock — 
with  "native  and  Eurasian  labour,"  is  only  4s.  or  $1.  It  is  against 
this  system  of  peonage  that  the  free  labourers  of  California,  Australia 
and  British  Columbia  have  to  contend  in  producing  gold  at  ^4  4s. 
11)^  or  $20.67  psr  ounce  fine  for  the  London,  Philadelphia. and  San 
Francisco  Mints.  These  circumstances  are  mentioned  not  by  way  of 
complaint,  or  invidious  comparison,  but  merely  to  exhibit  the  ex- 
tremely diverse  conditions  under  which  gold  is  produced  in  various 
parts  of  the  world  at  the  present  time. 

Mysore  at  the  period  of  the  British  Conquest  consisted  of  the  whole 
of  India  south  of  the  river  Chrishna.  At  the  present  time  the  term 
Mysore(often  used  synonymously  with  Madras)is  attached  to  a  some- 
what more  limited  area;  but  as  we  shall  mainly  have  to  deal  with  the 
mines  of  the  Colar  or  Kolar  district  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  enter 
further  into  topographical  details.  These  mines — already  alluded  to 
'  in  another  part  of  this  work — have  this  peculiarity:  they  are  not  re- 
cent discoveries,  but  very  ancient  mines  reopened  in  recent  years; 
and  reopened  not  because  of  any  new  developments,  but  "  rather  in 
consequence  of  the  extensive  native  workings  that  abounded  and  the 
evidences  of  the  existence  of  the  precious  metal  that  were  to  be  found, 
particularly  in  temples."  (Mint  Report,  1899,  page  276.)  The  plain 
fact  was  this:  that  the  neighbouring  temples  ultimately  got  the  bulk 
of  the  gold  which  the  ancient  miners  had  produced;  and  it  was  the 
presence  of  this  gold  in  the  temples  that  put  the  modern  prospectors 
upon  the  trail  of  its  source.  In  common  with  other  Indian  mines, 
they  appear  to  have  been  worked  superficialiy  by  the  Hindus,  and  in 
after  ages  carried  down  several  hundred  feet  by  the  Moslems.  An- 
cient tools  and  utensils  have  been  found  in  some  of  them:  in  the 


THE    MYSORK    AND    TRANSVAAL    MINES. 


431 


Ponaar  mines  of  Mysorea  number  of  human  skeletons  werediscovered, 
implying  that  the  miners  had  perished  in  them. probably  by  a  "cave." 
The  reopening  occurred  about  1870,  and  although  previous  to  1884 
some  small  amounts  of  gold  were  produced,  that  year  is  the  first  one 
which  marks  the  production  of  a  sufficient  sum  of  the  precious  metals 
to  merit  historical  attention.  The  following  Table  shows  the  produce 
from  1884  to  the  present  time: 

Proihction  <>k  (IdLi)  IN  Britism   India. 

The  following  returns  practically  include  only  the  quartz  mines  in  the  Cola r  district  of 

the  Mysore,  these  furnishing  ggf/  per  cent,  of  all.      The  ounces  are  of  British 

standard  gold,  elez'en-twelfths  fine. 

Year.  Ounces.       Value.        Year.    Ounces.         Value.        Year.    Ounces.        Value. 
1SS4       1,166      $  22,095      1S90     108,855     $2,062,802      1896     329,400    $6,130,547 

85  6,312         119.612         91      132,420       2,510,159         97     389,779       7,247,241 

86  16,452         311.765  92     163,985       3,041,81s         98     417.124       7,781,524 

87  15,652         296,605  93     106,900       3,814.914         99     447,971       8.517,458 
83     35,219        667,400         94     211,770       3,881,319     1900     500,000       9,475,000 

1889     80,000     1,516,000     1895     251,973       4,656,243      1901         —  — 

In  round  figures  the  produce  of  the  Mysore  mines  since  1884  has 
been  about  $70,000,000,  and  according  to  the  Reports  issued  to  the 
public  by  the  owners  of  these  properties,  there  is  a  strong  probabil- 
ity that  the  present  rate  of  production,  which  is  about  $10,000,000 
a  year,  will  continue  for  several  years  to  come.  The  mines  are  leased 
by  the  Indian  government  to  the  proprietors  upon  "  liberal"  terms. 
"It  is  not  proposed  to  levy  any  royalty  or  other  tax  on  the  industry 
for  the  present  (1882),  because  it  is  deemed  most  important  to  at- 
tract capital  to  the  gold-fields."  The  government,  however,  reserves 
the  right  to  impose  a  royalty  whenever  it  deems  fit. 

We  now  turn  to  the  mines  of  South  Africa. 

The  auriferous  produce  of  the  Transvaal  is  fully  set  forth  in  a  pre- 
vious part  of  this  work.  It  reached  its  achme  with  3,831,075  ounces 
in  1898,  fell  to  3,500,000  ounces  in  1899,  and  to  (probably  about)  625,- 
000  ounces  in  1900.  The  last  figure  is,  however,  mere  conjecture. 
The  war  between  Great  Britain  and  the  South  African  republics  has 
liberated  the  negros,  the  mines  are  idle  and  there  are  no  returns  of 
production.  If,  as  it  has  been  contended  by  the  mine-owners,  (share- 
holders) and  their  apologists,  these  mines  were  not  worked  by  forced 
labour,  why  is  it  that  they  are  idle  ?  The  Boers  left  the  mines,  ma- 
chinery and  structures  uninjured;'  the  properties  have  been  in  the 

'  Upon  examining  the  mines  after  the  British  were  driven  out  of  Johannesburg,  the 
Transvaal  government  found  that  secret  excavations  and  workings  had  been  made 
which  were  not  recorded  in  the  plans  of  the  mines,  and  that  many  of  them  were  in 


432  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

undisturbed  possession  of  the  British  shareholders  for  a  whole  year; 
yet  there  is  substantially  no  product.  There  is  but  one  reason  for 
this:  thenegroshavefledtothe  Veldt, beyond  the  reach  of  the  avarice, 
cruelty  and  hypocrisy  which  had  chained  them  to  the  banket  lodes  of 
Witwatersrand. 

When  there  are  millions  of  profits  on  the  one  side  and  nothing  ex- 
cept mercy  or  humanity  on  the  other,  there  will  be  no  end  of  denials 
from  the  beneficiaries  of  slavery.  Therefore,  a  word  or  two  of  ad- 
ditional evidence  on  this  subject  may  be  necessary  to  justify  the  at- 
titude of  the  present  work. 

According  to  the  U.  S.  Consular  Report,  No.  234,  the  Transvaal 
mines  in  1898  produced  gold  to  the  value  of  $78,361,000,  of  which 
amount  $28,858,000  were  divided  as  profit  and  $49,503,000  devoted 
to  expenditures;  the  mines  employing  92,806  hands.  In  this  Con- 
sular report  the  value  of  the  produce  is  overstated,  while  the  number 
of  hands  employed  is  understated.  The  real  value  of  the  produce  ap- 
pears to  have  been  about  61  millions,  while  the  number  of  hands  em- 
ployed was  about  120,000.  However,  to  save  dispute,  the  Consular 
figures  will  be  accepted  in  this  place  without  objection.  Of  the  amount 
devoted  to  expenditures  fully  two-thirds,  say  ;^;^  millions,  must  have 
been  expended  upon  machinery,  supplies,  dynamite,  mercury,  cyanide, 
fuel  for  the  mills,  taxes  or  royalties,^  legal  and  other  fees,  ofifice-ex- 
penses,  and  the  travelling  expenses  of  officials,  engineers,  surveyors, 
etc.  This  would  leave  about  16  millions  for  labour.  Included  under 
this  head  were  several  ^10,000  a  year  salaries  to  engineers  or  man- 
agers and  numerous  ^1,000  a  year  salaries  to  minor  officials,  beside 
stiJl  more  numerous  salaries  of  ;^3oo  a  year  to  overseers,  millmen, 
cyaniders,  shaftmen,  mechanics,  etc.,  all  of  whom  were  Europeans 
(whitemen)  of  exceptional  ability,  experience  and  courage.  The  sala- 
ries of  the  white  staff  of  the  Witwatersrand  mines  may  be  roughly 
estimated  at  about  one-third  of  the  fund  devoted  to  labour.  This 
would  leave  about  10  or  11  million  dollars  for  the  92,000  negro  miners; 
an  average  of  about  $120  a  year  for  each  negro,  say  ;^;^  cents  a  day: 
about  enough  to  pay  for,  say,  two  drinks  of  the  execrable  gin  with 

bad  order  and  n»eded  repairs.  The  Boers  then  repaired  and  worked  them.  "The 
government  mines  (the  ten  mines  chosen  to  be  worked  by  the  Transvaal  authorities), 
are  undamaged  and  they  can  resume  work  at  any  time.  As  regards  the  mines  not 
worked  in  the  interests  of  the  (Transvaal)  government  no  damage  has  been  done  to 
them."  J.Klimke,  ex-.State  Mining  Engineer  of  the  Transvaal,  in  the  London  "  South 
African  Review." 

^  The  royalty  imposed  by  the  Boer  government  was  5  per  cent.  Sir  David  Balfour 
now  proposes  to  substitute  a  tax  of  lo  per  cent,  on  profits  and  to  abolish  the  dynamite 
monopoly.     London  Corr.  New  York  Times,  June  16,  1901. 


THE    MYSORE    AND    TRANSVAAL    MINES.  433 

which  they  are  supplied.*  If  tliis  is  not  slavery;  if  the  fact  that  the 
subjects  of  this  cunning  system  were  bought  from  the  head  men  of 
their  tribes  at  so  much  each  and  forcibly  "  emigrated  "  against  their 
will  into  the  subterranean  depths  of  the  South  African  mines,  is  not 
slavery,  then  the  term  has  lost  all  that  significance  which  it  had  in  the 
eloquent  days  o(  Lord  Brougham  and  the  British  Anti-Slavery  Society. 

Returning  to  the  quantitative  aspect  of  the  Rand  mines,  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  although  their  produce  has  hitherto  constituted 
98  per  cent,  of  the  entire  auriferous  produce  of  South  Africa,  this  may 
not  continue  to  be  the  case.  'Inhere  are  other  auriferous  regions  in 
South  Africa,  and  there  are  millions  of  negros  yet  to  be  kidnapped, 
chained  to  work  and  paid  a  conscience-soothing  pittance,  in  order  that 
the  sorilid  but  pious  shareholders  in  these  enterprises  may  make  peace 
with  their  chosen  gods. 

The  mines  of  Rhodesia  first  began  to  produce  gold  in  1S99,  when 
the  returns  were  about  65,000  ounces.  Madagascar,  under  the  French, 
has  produced  for  many  years,  and  still  produces,  about  3,000  ounces 
of  gold  per  annum.  Some  other  items  may  bring  the  entire  auriferous 
produce  of  South  Africa,  outside  of  the  Rand,  to  70,000  ounces  per 
annum.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  gold  is  all  of  it  produced  by 
the  same  means,  that  is  to  say.  negro-slavery,  disguised  under  the 
euphemism  of  "contract-labour."' 

The  closer  one  looks  into  the  details  of  mining  for  the  precious 
metals  the  more  inexplicable  appears  the  policy  of  the  United  States 
in  demonetising  silver.  Of  this  metal  she  was  the  greatest  producer, 
and  hatl  she  insisted  upon  retaining  it  for  full  legal  teiuler  coins,  she 
might  soon  have  become  the  centre  of  the  world's  system  of  finance. 
As  a  prijducer  of  gold  she  is  severely  handicapped.  Take  California 
for  instance.  This  State  embraces  what  is  beyond  all  question  the 
greatest  gold-mining  area  in  the  known  world.  The  Mother  Lode 
stretches  nearly  the  whole  length  of  the  Slate  from  north  to  south, 
while  the  country  behnv  it  is  covered  with  placer  deposits  which  con- 
tain more  proved  and  accessible  gold  than  is  known  to  e.xist  in  all 
the  dominions  of  Great  Britain,  including  India,  Africa  and  Austral- 
asia. The  facilities  for  mining  are  unrivalled  ;  a  permanent  and  secure 
government;  equal  laws;  a  reasonably  fair  administration  of  justice; 

*  When,  during  the  war,  the  Kocrs  workiil  the  mines,  they  reduced  the  negro  wages 
to  one  pounil  sterling  (hvc  dollars)  a  month,  or  less  than  17  cents  a  day.  and  fined  the 
mine  managers  ten  pounds  sterling  for  ever)-  infraction  of  this  rule. 

'  .\n  attempt  was  recently  made  to  introduce  a  similar  system  among  the  negros 
employed  in  some  of  the  cotton  plantations  of  .'-iouth  Carolina,  but  it  was  frustrated  by 
the  .American  Courts,  who  fined  the  parties  and  declared  the  contracts  invalid.  New 
York   Times,  June  15,  k/ji. 


434  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

abundance  and  cheapness  of  food  and  other  supplies;  mining  machin- 
ery of  the  best  types  made  close  at  hand;  railways,  telegraphs,  re- 
fineries, mints,  etc.;  abundant  water  at  high  levels;  entire  absence 
of  royalties  or  taxes  of  any  kind;  and  a  perfect  climate.  Yet  Cali- 
fornia only  produces  15  millions  a  year,  while  British  India  produces 
10  millions,  the  Transvaal  60  millions,  and  Australasia  80  millions. 
Why  ?  Simply  because  California  is  handicapped.  She  has  no  In- 
dians, no  coolies,  no  Zulus,  no  contract  labourers.  Her  people  are  ab- 
solutely free ;  and  in  the  present  state  of  civilization  and  under  present 
circumstances  gold  cannot  be  prospected,  produced  and  acquired  by 
the  economical  efforts  of  freemen  for  $20.67  the  ounce,  which  is  the 
Mint  price.  This  conclusion  stands  upon  so  firm  a  foundation,  it  is 
supported  by  such  an  overwhelming  mass  of  evidence,  that  it  is  use- 
less to  dispute  it.  The  minimum  wages  of  common  miners  in  Cali- 
fornia are  $2  per  diem ;  in  most  camps,  $2. 50 ;  in  some,  $3 ;  in  Nevada 
(Comstock  Lode),  $4.  The  proprietors  of  mines  which  pay  these 
wages  cannot  compete  with  contract-labour  at  15  to  50  cents  a  day. 
They  are  handicapped,  so  that  only  those  mines  which  are  most  fa- 
vourably situated  in  respect  of  ample  deposites  of  ore  (this  practically 
means  "low  grade"),  a  ready  command  of  mechanical  power  and 
water,  together  with  cheap  transportation  and  other  advantages,  are 
attractive  enough  to  invite  the  miner  and  capitalist. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


ALASKA    AND    THK    KLONDIKE. 


Russian  occupation  of  Alaska — The  Fur  Company — Their  opposition  to  its  beings 
prospected  for  gold — Darrehan's  report — Russia  resolves  to  sell  the  Territory — Its 
purchase  by  the  United  States — Inroad  of  prospectors — The  Cassiar  district  on  the 
Stickeen — Establishment  of  Territorial  government  in  Alaska — Schiefflin's  expedition 
— Three  sets  of  prospecting  parties — The  great  discovery  on  Bonanza  Creek — Rush 
of  miners  to  the  Klondike — Character  of  the  deposites — The  tundras — Climate — Cost 
of  provisions — Wages — Summer  diggings — Taxes  on  production — Produce,  loo  mil- 
lions— Nome — Tanana — The  outlook  for  the  future. 

DURING  the  Russian  occupation  of  .\laska,  the  territory  was 
practically  given  over  to  the  Russian  American  Fur  Company, 
who  governed  it  with  power  of  life  and  death.  Their  interest  con- 
sisted in  keeping  their  agents  and  servants  busy  in  killing  seals  and 
securing  seal  skins.  No  heed  was  paid  to  any  other  resources  which 
the  country  might  possess;  and  every  obstacle  was  interposed  to  mine 
prospectors.  During  Gov.  Baranoff's  administration,  a  Russian  pros- 
pector found  gold  in  the  mountains  near  Sitka,  but  he  was  ordered 
either  to  give  up  prospecting  or  take  a  hundred  lashes.  In  1855,  the 
last  year  of  the  Czar  Nicolas,  a  mining  engineer,  named  Darrehan, 
was  commissioned  by  the  government  at  St.  Petersburg  to  report 
upon  the  mineral  resources  of  Alaska.  This  officer  went  through 
Siberia  to  the  sea,  crossed  to  Sitka,  and  with  a  corps  of  men  spent 
two  years  in  "prospecting  Alaska."  During  these  two  years  he  was 
under  the  influence  of  a  notoriously  corrupt  antl  unscrupulous  trail- 
ing company.  In  1858  Darrehan  returned  to  St.  Petersburg  with  a 
written  condemnation  of  Alaska.  This  condemnation  resulted  in  its 
sale.  The  Fur  Company  succeeded  in  preserving  its  monopoly,  but  at 
the  cost  to  Russia  of  a  territory  which  has  since  proved  to  be  worth 
what  was  paid  for  it  many  times  over.  The  sale  of  Alaska  to  the 
"United  States  for  seven  and  a-half  million  dollars  was  made  in  1867, 
down  to  which  time  no  survey  had  been  made  of  the  interior.  But 
now  came  the  prospectors.  In  1871  a  prospector  named  Doyle  dis- 
covered gold  at  Silver  Bay,  south  of  Sitka;  in   1872   Doyle  and  Ma- 


436  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

honey  discovered  a  quartz  ledge  on  Round  Mountain,  and  here,  in  the 
same  year,  Nicolas  Haley  fired  the  first  blast  in  Alaska  and  took  out 
of  it  $So  in  free  gold. 

In  1874  the  placers  of  the  Cassiar  district  were  opened  and  a  million 
dollars  taken  out;  in  1875  another  million  was  obtained;  in  1876  and 
1877  each  a-half  of  a  million.  The  number  of  miCn,  including  Indians, 
at  work  in  1874  was  2,000;  and  in  the  following  year  about  1,500;  in 
1879  there  were  1,800  men;  by  the  year  1883  the  placers  were  prac- 
tically exhausted  and  only  yielded  $135, 000, although  1,000  men  were 
working  in  them.  (Min.  Res. ,  1883.  p.  23.)  In  1884  the  miners  pulled 
out  and  started  north.  Next  to  the  Cassiar  district  the  earliest 
placers  worked  in  Alaska  are  said  to  have  been  those  of  Sum  Dum 
Bay,  opened  in  1876.* 

In  1879-80,  Prof.  John  Muir,  the  State  Geologist  of  California, 
made  a  casual  survey  of  the  Alaskan  Coast,  finding  gold  at  many 
places  between  Sitka  and  the  Arctic  Ocean;  but  in  this  respect  the 
prospectors  had  long  anticipated  him.  Indeed,  as  a  rule,  it  will  be 
found  that  the  professional  man  only  appears  in  time  to  confirm  what 
the  prospectors  have  already  demonstrated.  In  1880  Joseph  Juneau, 
prospecting  along  the  shores  of  Gastineau  Channel  discovered  Gold 
Creek,  where  he  found  rich  placers  and  quartz  ledges.  The  "city" 
of  Harrisburg,  afterwards  called  Rockwell,  eventually  took  Juneau's 
name.  In  1S82  its  population  was  only  30;  in  1898  this  had  grown 
to  3,000.  The  town  is  situated  near  the  gold  quartz  mines  on  Doug- 
las Island,  the  two  principal  ones  of  which,  in  1898,  produced  a  mil- 
lion dollars  from  ores  that  only  averaged  $2.40  (about  los. )  per  ton. 
These  two  mines  work  1,500  stamps  and  employ  427  men  at  $2.00  to 
$3.50  per  day  and  board.      ]\Iin.  Res.,  1898,  p.  55. 

The  merit  of  discovering  the  auriferous  character  of  the  Alaskan 
tundras  belongs  rather  to  the  British  than  the  American  prospector. 
From  the  moment  that  Alaska  was  acquired  by  the  United  States, 
the  country  was  searched  for  gold  by  prospectors  from  California. 
These  men  never  thought  of  looking  under  the  moss  and  "muck." 
Their  pannings  were  all  made  in  exposed  gravel  or  in  the  sand-bars 
of  receded  rivers.     They  found  gold,  but  not  in  such  startling  quan- 

'  The  Cassiar  district  is  in  the  valley  of  the  Stickeen  River,  which  rises  in  the  Brit- 
ish Northwest  Territory  and  flows  through  American  Alaska  to  the  Sound.  The  gold 
is  produced  within  British  lines,  but  finds  its  shipping  port  or  market  within  American 
lines,  hence  it  figures  in  the  production  both  of  British  Columbia  and  American  Alaska. 
As  in  respect  of  this  district,  the  writer,  like  the  Mint  Bureau,  has  relied  on  the  Con- 
sular returns,  and  as  these  do  not  always  distinguish  the  produce  by  mines,  he  fears 
that  the  produce  of  the  Cassiar  district  has  been  wholly  or  partly  duplicated,  both  in 
the  Mint  Reports  and  herein.  However,  it  is  relatively  unimportant  and  comparatively 
antiquated. 


ALASKA     AND     IHK     Kl.ON'DlKl.  437 

titles  as  to  cause  a  "rush."  Ainoui^  tlie  early  locations  where  piiv- 
dirt  was  found  in  placers  were  Douglas  IsUuul  and  the  Creeks  which 
drain  the  mainland  valleys  into  the  Lynn  Canal,  or  Sounil.  In  1879, 
digjjings  which  paid  from  §5  to  $20  a  ilay  were  opened  on  Gold  Creek. 
In  the  same  year  prospecting  parties  were  fully  equipped  at  Sitka  and 
sent  out  in  all  directions  to  explore  the  land.  H5'  the  vear  1S82  a 
number  of  gold  mines  were  discovered  near  the  coast  at  various  points 
between  the  Aleutian  Peninsula  and  IJeliring  Strait.  The  output  of 
this  year  was  estimateil  by  Mr.  \'alentine,  who  enjoyed  excellent  op- 
pt)rtunities  for  forming  a  correct  opinion  concerning  the  produce  of 
Alaska,  at  so  large  a  sum  as  $250,000.  In  1883  the  output  was  esti- 
mated by  Capt.  James  Carroll  at  $400,000.  and  by  R.  D.  W'illoughby 
at  S450.000.     Min.  Res.,  1883,  p.  20. 

In  18S4  an  Act  of  Congress  proviiled  a  Territorial  government  for 
Alaska,  but  as  the  officials  from  Washington  did  not  arrive  out  until 
after  the  close  of  the  mining  season,  the  Act  did  not  have  any  influence 
upon  mining  until  the  following  year.  The  estimated  produce  for 
1SS4  was  only  $200,000.  Down  to  this  time  the  only  title  to  property 
in  the  Territory  was  force.  So  long  as  men  were  thus  insecure  in 
their  possessions  there  was  little  incentive  to  prospect  or  locate,  and 
none  to  iinprove.  "Take  what  you  can  find;  take  it  anyhow  and  at 
once,  or  never,"  was  the  only  practical  rule  for  the  prospector.  But 
from  the  organization  of  the  American  Territorial  Government,  the 
establishment  of  the  Civil  Law  and  the  employment  of  officials  and 
policemen  to  enforce  it,  Alaska  dates  a  new  birth.  No  sooner  were 
these  great  events  consumated,  no  sooner  did  it  become  safe  for  the 
prospector  to  disclose  by  recording  his  "find,"  than  the  riches  of  the 
Yukon  Valley  began  to  be  talked  about  and  advertised.  Mining  news 
travels  far  and  fast.  In  a  few  months'  time  it  reached  Arizona,  where 
lived  Ned  Schiefflin,  popularly  known  as  "J.  C,"  who  had  sold  his 
interest  in  the  Toughnut  Mine  of  Tombstone  City,  for  a  million  dol- 
lars. Schiefflin  hurried  to  San  Francisco,  bought  a  steam  yacht,  filled 
it  with  supplies  and  men  and  started  at  once  for  the  Yukon.  The 
poorer  prospectors,  unable  to  purchase  steam  vessels,  or  employ 
miners,  shouldered  their  kits  and  painfully  struggled  through  the 
Chilkat  and  Chilcoot  Passes.  Schiefflin,  although  an  experienced 
prospector  and  a  brave  man,  lost  eighteen  months  time  and  found 
little  beyond  some  quartz  ledges  and  small  placers  in  the  Ramparts, 
the  former  being  of  no  present  value.  Leaving  a  dozen  or  more  men 
to  work  the  placers,  Schiefflin  sold  his  expensive  outfit  and  returned 
to  Arizona.     The  poor  miners  from   Eastern  Alaska,  after  enduring 


438  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

many  hardships,  at  last  reached  the  Upper  Yukon,  where  they  became 
the  pioneers  of  the  land  and  were  among  the  first  to  share  the  rich 
discoveries  which  were  made  a  few  years  later. 

Meanwhile,  the  route  by  the  Chilkat  Pass,  which  had  been  opened 
by  prospectors  in  1879,  was  surveyed  to  Copper  River  by  General 
Miles  in  1882,  and  beyond  Copper  River  in  1883.  The  visible  em- 
blems of  authority  exhibited  by  the  soldiers  employed  in  these  sur- 
veys did  much  to  assure  the  adventurers  in  this  lonely  and  remote 
country  that  their  interests  would  be  protected  by  a  firm  government. 

By  the  year  1895  three  sets  of  prospecting  parties  were  converging 
upon  the  spot  where  the  great  discoveries  were  subsequently  made. 
Was  it  professional  instinct,  or  Indian  talk,  or  the  disclosure  of  min- 
ing secrets  by  the  prospectors,  or  mere  chance,  that  guided  the  foot- 
steps of  these  sleuth-hounds  ?  First,  there  were  a  thousand  or  more 
men  from  the  Cassiar  district, slowly  making  their  way  along  the  coast, 
and  incidently  picking  off  the  croppings  from  the  mountain  ranges  of 
the  Northwest  Territory.  As  for  testing  the  tundras,  this  w-as  too 
arduous  and  expensive  a  task  for  isolated  and  ill-provisioned  miners. 
Prospecting  a  tundra  means  the  preliminary  loss  of  two  seasons  and 
an  amount  of  work  that  involves  association  and  some  capital.  Second, 
there  were  the  prospectors  of  the  Chilkat  and  Chilcoot  Passes,  who 
were  creeping  northward  along  the  141st  degree  of  west  longitude, 
now  on  the  British  side,  now  on  the  American,  looking  for  gold  in  the 
river  valleys  and  never  suspecting  that  all  the  while  it  laid  beneath 
them,  concealed  by  the  moss  and  the  muck  of  the  tundras.  Third, 
to  say  nothing  of  other  parties,  there  were  the  Schieffiin  adventurers 
in  the  placers  of  the  Lower  Yukon,  who  had  preferred  to  seek  their 
fortunes  in  Alaska  rather  than  return  with  their  leader  to  Arizona. 

In  1895,  ^  number  of  men  from  these  various  sources  settled  upon 
tligsi^gs  which  paid  them  a  bare  living,  at  places  not  far  from  the 
future  centre  of  auriferous  activity.  There  were  camps  at  Forty- 
Mile,  Sixty-Mile,  Circle  City,  and  other  places  in  the  Yukon  Valley. 
At  Sixty-Mile,  Joseph  Ladue  had  a  saw-mill,  which  was  employed  in 
cutting  boards  for  miners'  sluice-boxes  and  cabins,  for  which  boards  he 
got  $150  per  thousand  feet.  His  mill  was  a  centre  of  supplies  not  only 
for  boards,  but  also  for  news.  When  a  miner  needed  credit  for  boards 
he  was  obliged  to  disclose  his  resources;  and  these  seldom  consisted 
of  more  than  his  discoveries.  In  the  summer  of  1896,  a  miner  who 
had  recorded  a  claim  on  the  Klondike  with  the  British  Mining  Com- 
missioner, applied  to  Ladue  for  boards.  The  prudent  miller  person- 
ally inspected  the  man's  claim  before  he  granted  the  credit.   Then  he 


iy^» ;■■»■.  '.'P  J. .  .1  jyjpt  n  p^vmr  ,/9i( 


GEN.     NEUSON    A.     MILES 

(To  face  p.  4)8) 


ALASKA    AND    THE    KLONDIKF.  439 

recorded  a  claim  for  himself  on  the  Klondike,  and  at  once  removed 
his  little  mill  from  Sixty-Mile  to  a  spot  which  he  selected  at  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Klondike  and  the  Yukon,  fifty-five  miles  east  of  the 
boundary  line.  That  spot,  located  September  ist,  1896,  is  now  called 
Dawson  City. 

Pay-dirt  on  Bonanza  Creek,  an  afiflucnt  of  the  Klondike,  was  dis- 
covered by  Robert  Henderson,  an  old  prospector,  one  of  the  much 
abused  '*  has-beens,"  during  the  early  summer  of  1896.  Shortly  after- 
wartls,  rich  gravel  was  also  found  on  the  same  Creek  by  George  W. 
Cormack,  to  whom  Henderson  had  imparted  his  find.  The  result  of 
these  discoveries  was  the  filing  by  Cormack,  on  August  19th,  1896, 
of  Discovery  Claim  No.  i,  on  Bonanza  Creek.  Then  the  news  flew. 
By  September  ist,  200  prospectors  were  on  this  Creek  and  its  tribu- 
taries, trying  the  ground  and  staking  claims;  while  500  or  600  others 
were  in  the  tents  of  Dawson  City,  bent  upon  prospecting  for  them- 
selves. On  November  3rd,  a  big  strike  was  made  on  Bonanza  Creek, 
§25  being  taken  from  seven  pans  (about  150  pounds)  of  gravel.  This 
was  soon  afterwards  eclipsed  by  a  strike  on  El  Dorado  Creek,  where 
§18  to  the  pan  were  taken.  The  phenomenal  strike  was  in  Claim  No. 
30,  on  El  Dorado  Creek,  which  yielded  in  some  places  $800  to  $1,000 
per  pan,  and  averaged  $70  to  the  square  foot.  The  current  wage  for 
miners  (anybody)  was  $1.50  per  hour,  or  $15  per  day.  Yet  even  at 
this  rate  but  few  men  were  to  be  had,  each  man  preferring  to  prospect 
for  himself :  the  claims  commanding  a  premium  of  from  $1,000  to 
§5,000  and  some  of  them  very  much  more.  In  January,  1897,  ''lays" 
(half  of  the  produce,  the  proprietor  paying  all  the  expenses  of  the 
operation,  such  as  tools,  fuel,  timber,  etc.,)  were  accepted  by  the 
miners  on  Bonanza  and  El  Dorado  Creeks,  in  lieu  of  wages.  During 
the  winier,sinking,  drifting  and  hoisting  the  gravel  was  carried  on  vig- 
orously. On  May  7th,  1897,  the  long  expected  thaw  commenced  and 
water  became  accessible;  when  the  gravel  dumps  were  shovelled  into 
the  sluice-bo.xes  and  washing  was  begun.  In  four  months'  time,  the 
e.xtreme  limit  of  the  season,  600  men  took  out  three  million  dollars 
in  gold;  equal  to  $5,000  per  man,  most  of  them  being  |)roprietors 
and  "lay"  men.  Not  over  100  men  worked  on  wages.  Claims  were 
now  selling  at  $5,000  to  $30,000.  By  October  is-t,  1897,  claims  to  the 
number  of  1,266  were  located  on  18  different  creeks,  and  the  miners 
looked  forward  with  assurance  to  a  very  profitable  season  in  1898. 

The  ground  in  the  Klondike  district  is  covered  with  about  a  foot 
of  moss,  in  some  places  a  foot  and  a-half,  which  of  course  has  to  be 
removed  before  operations  can  be  commenced.      Beneath  the  moss 


44°  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

are  from  two  to  twenty  feet  of  muck,  peat  and  worthless  mould.  This 
also  has  to  be  removed  and  disposed  of,  away  from  the  ground  in- 
tended to  be  mined.  This  last  is  the  gold-bearing  gravel.  The  ground 
is  frozen  solid  to  a  depth  of  about  eight  feet.  To  penetrate  this  frozen 
ground,  with  pick  and  shovel,  it  has  first  to  be  thawed,  by  building 
great  fires  upon  it.  The  heat  thaws  the  earth  to  the  depth  of  about 
two  feet,  when  the  fires  are  extinguished,  the  dirt  is  removed,  and 
the  operation  repeated  until  the  gravel  is  penetrated  or  bed-rock 
reached.  ]\Ieanwhile,  the  excavations  have  to  be  supported  by  tim- 
bers. When  the  stratification  ceases  to  be  frozen,  drifting  can  be 
carried  on  and  the  gravel  stoped  more  rapidly.  As  fast  as  the  gravel 
is  stoped,  it  is  hoisted  to  the  surface  and  thrown  on  dumps  to  await 
the  spring  thaw,  when  it  is  washed  in  pans  or  sluice-boxes,  usually 
the  latter,  and  the  precious  metal  is  extracted. 

The  shortness,  heat  and  glare  of  the  summer  season  and  the  ex- 
travagant prices  of  provisions,  transportation,  etc.,  render  the  toil  of 
the  miner  exhausting  and  unprofitable.  It  takes  all  that  a  man  can 
earn  during  the  mining  season  to  support  him  through  the  year.  The 
summer  often  lasts  but  seventy  days,  and  seldom  more  than  ninety, 
after  which  time  the  water  freezes,  gold- washing  ceases  and  the  pro- 
duction of  gold  is  arrested  until  the  next  year.  From  December  ist 
to  February  ist  the  daylight  only  lasts  about  six  hours  per  diem,  while 
the  temperature  falls  to  40,  50,  and  even  to  77  degrees  below  zero. 
During  the  summer  there  is  seldom  any  rain,  the  sun  is  in  sight  twenty 
hours  out  of  the  twenty-four,  and  the  temperature  in  June  and  July 
often  rises  to  125  degrees  Fahrenheit;  yet  the  great  heat,  which  ex- 
hausts and  sometimes  prostrates  the  miners,  only  thaws  the  soil  to 
the  extent  of  three  or  four  feet,  in  some  places  only  one  foot. 

In  spite  of  these  difficulties  and  hardships  the  proprietors,  on  Sep- 
tember 23rd,  1897,  endeavoured  to  reduce  wages  from  $1.50  to  $1 
per  hour;  but  the  men  succeeded  in  defeating  the  movement.  The 
claim  of  the  proprietors  was  that  at  the  higher  rate  the  produce  would 
not  pay;  and  this  in  many  cases  was  true;  but  until  miners  became 
more  plentiful,  the  proprietors  either  had  to  pay  the  rate  demanded, 
or  let  their  properties  lie  idle  and  lose  the  chance  of  a  big  strike,  or 
else  of  selling  their  claims  to  outsiders,  at  prices,  which  for  developed 
claims  of  good  promise,  now  ranged  from  $10,000  to  $50,000  per  claim. 
In  December,  1897, upwards  of  3,000  men  were  in  the  Klondike  mines, 
while  their  output,  as  events  proved  in  1898,  only  amounted  to  about 
ten  million  dollars,  an  average  of  about  $3,333  per  man. 

In  the  deep  diggings,  (the  tundras),  the  bed-rock,  close  to  which 


ALASKA     AND     1  H  K    KLONDIKE.  44 1 

the  best  gold  lies,  can  only  be  reached  in  winter,  because  below  the 
frozen  soil  the  water  from  the  rivers  freely  peicolates  the  gravelly  de- 
tritus which  contains  the  gold.  Perhaps  the  introduction  of  Poetsch's 
process  may  remedy  this  difficulty.  Meanwhile,  many  miners  unwill- 
ing to  risk  the  severe  winters  of  Alaska,  or  else  to  escape  the  high 
prices  to  which  provisions  rise  iluring  this  season,  limit  themselves  to 
"  summer  digi;ings,"  in  other  worils,  to  ordinary  placer  mines, of  which 
great  numbers  in  small  patches  are  to  be  found  in  the  river  valleys. 
In  American  Alaska  there  are  no  ta.xes  upon  mining;  no  licenses 
or  permits  are  reijuired,  and  no  fees  are  e.xacted,  e.xcept  the  trifling 
one  of  $2.50  (los.)  for  recording  a  location.  In  British  Alaska,  be- 
side the  fee  for  license  $15,  continuances  $15  a  year,  and  high  re- 
cording fees,  the  government  exacts  a  ta.x  or  royalty  upon  production 
of  ten  per  cent.  ;  and  if  the  produce  is  over  $500  per  week,  20  per 
cent.,  ad  valorem  on  the  surplus.  A  possible  modification  of  this  roy- 
alty is  mentioned  further  on.  The  amount  of  royalty  paid  in  1898  was 
S700.000,  which  bespeaks  a  production  of  less  than  seven  millions; 
but  as  the  ta.x  was  largely  evaded,  the  produce  has  been  estimated  at 
twelve  millions.  In  fact,  during  that  year  more  than  eleven  millions 
from  Alaska  are  known  to  have  reached  the  Mints  and  Assay  offices 
of  the  United  States,  beside  what  was  carried  by  the  miners  to  other 
places.      Mint  Reports,  1S96  and  189S:  Consular  Report,  No.  243, 

Gold  Produce  of  thk  klondikk  and  .\la.ska. 

TaSU  showing  the  estimatid  produce  of  gold  in  the  Klondike  region  of  the  British 
JVorthwest  Territory  and  in  the  United  States  Territory  of  Alaska,  respectively, 
since  tSg4.     Sums  in  A  merican  gold  dollars. 
Year.  Klondike.  .\nicr.  .Maska.  Year.  Klondike.       Amer.  Alaska. 

iSg4  —  $i,oo<j.ooo  1S9S  $12, 000, (XX)  $  2,500,000 

1895  —  1,500,000  1899  16,000,000  6,000.000 

lSg6  $    500,000  2,000,000  1900  18,000,000  8,(xxj,ooo 

1897  2,500,000  2,500,000  1901  20,000,000  10,000,000 

Remarks. — The  Klondike  estimate  for  iqoi,  from  the  U.  S.  Consular  Report  No. 
243,  is  evidently  based  on  the  assumption  that  that  district  will  produce  more  gold 
this  year  than  it  did  in  1900.  .Some  estimates  goes  as  high  as  $25,0(X),ooo.  This  is 
opposed  to  the  belief  of  several  experienced  prospectors,  who  are  conlident  that  the 
Klondike  has  reached  itsachme.  Nevertheless,  the  estimate  has  been  allowed  tostand; 
first,  because  it  rests  on  respectable  authority  ;  and  next,  because  even  if  mistaken 
with  respect  to  the  Klondike,  the  estimate  is  likely  to  be  made  good  from  the  produce 
of  other  districts  in  the  British  Northwest  Territory,  some  of  which  promise  to  yield 
large  returns. 

The  returns  from  .American  .Maska  embrace  the  quartz  mines  on  Douglas  Island 
and  vicinity.  The  estimate  for  1S99  includes  three  millions  for  the  Nome  district 
(popularly  credited  with  nine  millions  for  that  year).  The  estimate  for  1900,  in  Con- 
sular Report  No.  240,  is  three  millions.  To  this  amount  five  millions  have  been 
added  for  Nome  and  other  districts,  of  which  the  Consul  (at  Yictoria)  does  not  apoear 
to  have  heard.  For  1901,  the  estimate  includes  the  expected  returns  from  Nome, 
Tanana  \alley,  and  other  new  districts. 


442  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

From  this  Table  it  will  be  observed  that  Alaska  has  already  pro- 
duced over  one  hundred  million  dollars  in  gold;  and  as  only  a  begin- 
ning has  been  made  in  prospecting  its  vast  area,  it  is,  perhaps,  not 
altogether  too  hazardous  to  predict  that  it  may  yet  become  the  prin- 
cipal producer  of  gold  among  all  the  American  States  or  Territories. 

In  his  report,  dated  May  24,  1900,  the  American  Consul  at  Dawson 
City,  thus  apportions  the  output  for  that  year:  El  Dorado  Creek, 
$3,746,200;  Bonanza,  $3,216,490;  Dominion,  including  tributaries 
and  hillsides,  $.2,352,010;  Sulphur,  $1,456,720;  Hunker,  $1,21 1, 100; 
Gold  Run,  $1,037,050;  Gold  Hill,  $749,100;  Cheechuco  Hill,  $712,- 
300;  Fox  Gulch  and  Oro  Fino,  $702,000;  fourteen  other  (mentioned) 
principal,  besides  numberless  smaller  creeks  and  benches(not  named), 
$1,815,030;  total,  $18,000,000.  These  mines  employ  5,280  men  at 
$1  per  hour.  The  Consul  represents  the  population  of  the  Yukon 
district  (the  Klondike)  as  having  diminished  since  the  previous  year 
by  two  thousand.  Hundreds  of  prospectors  have  left  and  others  are 
leaving  for  the  new  diggings  in  the  Koyukuk  and  other  districts  of 
American  Alaska,  where  there  are  no  royalties  or  taxes  to  pay.  In  a 
later  report  he  says  that  the  miners  who  worked  for  "laymen"  have 
not  gained  the  ordinary  wage.  When  the  year's  wash-up  took  place 
it  turned  out  that  the  cost  of  working  the  claims  was  more  than  half 
of  the  output,  and,  as  under  later  contracts,  the  layman  undertook  to 
defray  part  of  the  cost  of  working,  this  circumstance  curtailed  his 
proportion  and  diminished  the  fund  out  of  which  his  workmen  were 
to  be  paid.  As  the  latter  had  agreed  beforehand  not  to  hold  the 
claims  for  any  deficit  in  wages,  they  had  no  remedy  for  their  grievance. 
Many  of  them  have  started  for  the  new  diggings  at  Tananain  Amer- 
ican Alaska,  where  there  is  20  cent  dirt  (20  cents  to  the  pan  of  gravel) 
with  only  2)^  feet  to  bed-rock,  which  is  far  more  profitable  than  $1 
dirt  with  25  feet  to  bedrock.  The  Tanana  district  is  of  immense  ex- 
tent and  will  probably  entice  away  a  large  proportion  of  the  miners 
from  the  Klondike.  At  Dawson  City  the  prices  of  provisions  are  fall- 
ing. Potatoes  formerly  at  $1  a  pound  are  now  down  to  20  cents, 
while  beef  and  mutton  have  fallen  to  40  cents.  On  the  other  hand, 
wood  for  fuel  had  gone  up  to  $25  a  cord.  The  land  in  Dawson  City 
has  been  assessed  by  the  Town  Council  for  taxable  purposes  at  a 
million  dollars;  the  improvements  at  a  million  and  a-half ;  and  "  the 
volume  of  business,"  by  which  is  probably  meant  the  sales  of  mer- 
chandise (and  not  including  land,  mining  claims,  or  bullion),  at  nine 
millions.  On  September  17th  the  same  official  reported  that  all  deep 
claims  (tundras)  were  now  worked  with  boiler,  engine  and  pump;  that 


ALASKA    AND    THE    KLONDIKE.  443 

wages  had  fallen  to  $4  a  tlay;  that  Dawson  City  was  still  growing  in 
importance  and  wealth;  that  of  the  output  for  1900  about  12  to  13 
millions  had  already  been  shipped;  that  from  three  to  four  million 
dollars  of  British  capital  had  been  invested  in  the  mines;  that  the 
license  and  record  fees,  and  especially  the  royalty  of  "  10  per  cent, 
on  the  gross  output  of  any  claim  (yielding)  over  $5,000  per  year," 
had  caused  great  dissatisfaction; '^  that  the  forests  of  Alaska  were 
being  rapidly  destroyed  by  the  miners,  who  expressed  no  regrets  on 
the  subject;  and  that  a  new  auriferous  district  had  been  discovered 
on  the  Chandelar  River,  which  flows  into  the  Yukon  below  the  Fort 
of  that  name.  Every  thought  was  on  to-day;  none  on  to-morrow. 
Sauve  qui  pent! 

The  fall  of  wages  to  $4  a  day  can  only  mean  that  the  summer  season 
being  practically  over  and  the  general  clean-up  nearly  completed, 
there  remained  in  and  about  Dawson  City  a  large  number  of  unem- 
ployed men,  who  were  willing  to  accept  what  was  barely  sufficient  to 
live  upon,  until  the  following  month  of  May.  It  may  safely  beheld 
that  no  gold  has  yet  been  produced  in  Alaska  or  the  Klondike  at  a 
lower  wage  than  $10  and  much  at  $15  to  $20  a  day.  In  some  instances 
$40  dollars  a  day  were  paid.'  Among  the  newer  districts  of  Alaska 
is  Cape  Nome,  with  headquarters  at  Nome,  originally  Anvil  City,  on 
Anvil  Creek,  whose  auriferous  character  was  discovered  in  1898.  As 
the  district  is  readily  accessible  from  the  sea  the  discovery  occasioned 
a  rush,  which  was  accelerated  by  the  further  discovery  that  the  beach 
itself  at  Cape  Nome  was  auriferous.  In  1899  five  thousand  men  were 
at  Cape  Nome  ready  to  undergo  the  hardships  and  privations  of  a 
prospector's  life  in  the  Arctic  Circle.  The  diggings  on  Anvil  Creek 
and  Nakkilla  Gulch  which  runs  into  it,  also  on  Snow  Creek  and  other 
places,  yielded  over  three  million  dollars.   The  beach  diggings,  though 

'  This  appears  to  be  a  modification  of  the  royalty  previously  mentioned  in  the  text; 
and  the  "  official"  reports,  from  which  both  the  statements  are  quoted,  are  not  always 
correct  and  sometimes  need  very  careful  editing.  The  first  statement,  (Mint  Report, 
iSyf),  p.  2£5,)  taxes  all  mines  yitldinjj  up  to  $50(3  a  week,  lo  per  cent,  on  the  proiiuce, 
and  over  that.  2o  per  cent,  on  the  surplus.  The  second  statement  (Consular  Report 
No  243)  taxes  all  mines  yielding  over  $5,000  a  year,  lO  per  cent.,  but  says  nothing 
about  a  20  per  cent.  tax.  These  statements  maybe  only  two  ilifTerent  ways  of  saying 
the  same  thing,  namely,  that  the  mines  are  taxed  10  per  cent,  on  an  output  of  $500  a 
week,  and  20  per  cent,  on  the  surplus  output  beyond  S500  a  week. 

*  M.  de  Koville,  quoting  the  Department  of  Labour  at  Washington,  says  that  between 
July  15th,  I.S97,  and  July  15th,  lS(;S.  4o,(xkj  men  reached  the  Klondike,  while  20,000 
others  started,  but  failed  to  arrive.  lie  estimates  the  cost  of  tluir  outfit  at  $5<x5each, 
total,  30  millions,  and  15  millions  more  spent  in  "the  creation  of  shipping  and  com- 
mercial establishments,"  and  concludes  that  "for  every  doll.ir  extracted  from  the 
sands  of  the  extreme  North  more  than  a  dollar  has  been  expended."  Mint  Report, 
iSgS,  p.  ig3.  This  is  doubtless  true  ;  yet  gold  seeking  "  opens"  a  new  country  and 
distributes  the  industrial  population.     This  is  worth  something. 


444  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

they  yielded  some  gold,  were  soon  abandoned  for  the  more  alluring 
locations  on  the  Creeks.  In  1900  the  rush  increased  to  20,000  men; 
and  upwards  of  30,000  claims  were  staked.  The  scene  of  the  principal 
finds  was  on  Daniels  Creek;  also  in  the  Blue  Stone  district  at  Port 
Clarence,  the  outlet  to  Grantley  Harbour;  in  the  Kougarok  district, 
60  miles  north  of  Nome;  and  on  Harris,  Quartz,  and  Garfield  Creeks. 
The  Kougarok  River  is  an  affluent  of  the  Kooseticam  which  flows  into 
a  salt  lake,  25  or  30  miles  from  Grantley  Harbour.  Here  there  were 
1,500  miners.  Topkok,  50  miles  from  Nome,  was  a  discovery  of  this 
year.  So  was  Gold  Run,  a  tributary  of  Blue  Stone  River,  which  en- 
ters Grantley  Harbour.  A  thousand  men  were  preparing  to  dig  here 
when  the  season  of  1901  opened.  In  Behring  City  and  Teller  City,, 
which  are  eight  miles  apart,  town  lots  were  selling  for  $1,500.  The 
price  of  boards  at  Nome  was  $250  per  thousand  feet.  "  Coal  at  $75 
a  ton,  and  each  man  must  be  his  own  coal  cart;  shingles,  $io*a  bunch; 
flour,  $5  a  sack;  milk,  fifty  cents  a  can  in  case  lots;  sugar,  thirty-five 
cents  a  pound;  rice,  twenty-five  cents;  butter,  seventy-five  cents; 
bacon,  thirty-five  cents;  potatoes,  $20  per  cwt. ;  eggs,  $2  a  doz.  ;  coal 
oil,  $1  a  gallon;  syrup,  $2.50  a  gallon,  and  Klondike  strawberries 
(beans)  eight  cents  a  pound.  The  fare  from  Nome  to  San  Francisco 
or  Seattle  is  $100  dollars;  so  that  it  is  cheaper  to  go  away  for  the 
winter  than  to  stay.  There  is  the  usual  boom  in  real  estate,  the 
choicest  properties  on  Front  street  having  changed  hands  several 
times.  The  last  sale  was  the  El  Dorado  Building,  a  frame  50  by  75 
feet,  on  a  lot  50  by  150,  the  consideration  being  $22,000.  The  sum 
of  $90,000  cash  was  paid  for  four  mining  claims  in  different  localities. 
The  ruling  price  of  labour  is  one  dollar  an  hour.  Longshoremen  get 
twenty  dollars  a  day  and  overtime,  but  it  is  worth  fifty  dollars,  as  they 

•  work  in  the  water,and,in  temperature,  the  water  is  distinctly  Alaskan. " 
The  jewelers  at  Nome  were  doing  a  thriving  trade  buying  gold-dust 

-  and  nuggets  at  $16  an  ounce,  and  selling  diamonds  at  four  times  their 
cost  at  San  Francisco.  The  few  women  who  venture  into  this  region 
are  described  as  being  "loaded"  with  brilliants.  The  bench-claims 
above  Anvil  Creek  yielded  fifty  cents  to  the  pan ;  some  yielded  a  dol- 
lar. A  bench-claim  at  the  head  of  Nakkilla  Gulch,  "  upon  which  four 
men  were  working  with  two  rockers,  using  water  hauled  by  horses 
from  Anvil  Creek,  produced  in  three  days  690  ounces  of  gold,  worth 
over  $13,000.  On  the  third  day  the  men  rocked  out  $5,400.  On 
Garfield  Creek  some  of  the  gravel  went  $40  to  the  pan.  A  claim  pur- 
chased for  $100  yie^lded  in  a  few  days  $4,000.  Others  turned  out 
$4,000,  $6,000  and  even  $12,000.    Some  claims  near  Council  City  have. 


ALASKA    AND    1HE    KLONDIKK.  445 

turned  out  §^5,000.  A  woniaii  who  conducted  an  eating-Iiouse  at 
Checkers  Town,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kougarok,  was  covered  with 
diamonds  purchased  at  Nome."  All  these  camps  were  crowded  with 
gamblers,  a  sure  sign  of  their  productiveness.  The  first  pan  from  (iold 
Run  yielded  $10.  Pans  of  $2  and  $5  were  common.  Some  yielded 
$16  to  $26.  Claims  were  selling  for  §10,000.  Men  with  rockers  on 
their  backs  were  labouriously  dragging  themselves  over  the  moss- 
covered  tundras  (these  have  not  been  touched  as  yet)  to  find  easy 
diggings  on  the  Creeks.  The  output  of  the  Nome  tlistrict,  which  em- 
braces all  these  diggings,  is  given  at  five  million  dollars  for  the  year 
1900.  The  men  are  described  as  "  unwashed,  unshaven,  hair  uncut, 
covered  with  vermin,  clothes  dirty  and  ragged,  toes  out  of  shoes, 
soles  worn  through,"  their  eyes  rolling  about  in  every  direction  search- 
ing for  gold  and  regardless  of  all  else.  Some  have  died  of  privation 
or  disappointment,  others  have  succumbed  to  the  pistol  or  dirk  in 
contests  over  "jumped"  claims,  all  are  crazed  with  the  auri  sacra-, 
fames.  Tappen  Adney,  in  Collier's  Weekly,  Jan.  5,  1901,  and  othor.- 
press  correspondents. 

The  mineral  laws  of  the  United  States  are  stigmatised  by  Mr.  .Vdney^ 
as  "  outrageous,"  because  they  enable  a  man  to  take  up  several  claims, 
and  to  tie  them  up  for  a  year,  without  doing  anything  to  devcltip^ 
them;  yet  preventing  others  fr^m  doing  so.  The  jumping  of  claims, 
is  common  and  this  often  ends  in  bloodshed.  As  yet  the  Territoriali 
government  is  weak  in  e.xecutive  officers,  but  this  will  soon  right  itself, 
as  it  has  done  in  the  other  mining  districts  of  Western  America;  and! 
lawless  acts  will  be  repressed.  There  is  a  large  reserve  fund  of  com-- 
mon  sense  among  the  .\merican  people  and  this  promptly  makes  itself 
felt  in  new  communities.    The  future  of  Alaska  is  full  of  promise. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

PRODUCTION,   CONSUMPTION    AND    STOCKS    OF    METAL, 

Production  of  the  precious  metals  since  the  Discovery  of  America — Dollars,  tons 
and  car-loads — Table — Proportions  obtained  through  conquest,  slavery  and  free-min- 
ing— These  circumstances  destroy  the  theory  that  the  value  of  these  metals  is  due  to 
the  cost  of  their  production — Admission  by  Cobden  and  others  that  it  is  dtie  to  quan- 
tity, or  demand-and  supply — Production  compared  with  consumption — Large  propor- 
tion consumed  in  the  arts,  or  lost,  worn-out,  or  destroyed — Misleading  statistics  of 
the  Mint  Bureau — Their  pernicious  influence — Exaggerated  stocks  of  India,  China 
and  Siam — Taxation  of  the  product  affords  another  proof  that  value  is  not  due  to  cost 
of  production — World's  Stock  on  Hand — Difficulty  of  forming  correct  estimates — In- 
crease of  paper  money — Cheque  system — The  coinages  afford  no  reliable  guide — 
Neither  do  the  import  and  export  accounts — Small  amount  of  gold  circulating  in 
America — Table  of  Stock  on  Hand  in  various  countries  in  1S79  and  1899 — Bank  re- 
serves— Proportions  of  coins,  notes  and  cheques  employed  in  the  United  States — 
Their  respective  ratios  of  activity — Time,  an  element  of  price. 

SINCE  the  discovery  of  America  there  has  been  brought  into  the 
commercial  world  9,466  million  dollars  worth  of  gold,  and  10,189 
million  dollars  worth  of  silver;  valuing  the  latter  at  the  long-time 
■coinage  ratio  of  16  for  i.  Perhaps  the  immensity  of  these  sums  might 
be  better  realized  by  the  generality  if  they  were  reduced  to  tons  and 
carloads.  Roughly  speaking,  the  gold  would  weigh  19,000  tons  and 
the  silver  340,000  tons.  It  would  require  35,800  freight  cars,  each 
laden  with  ten  tons,  to  transport  the  lot.  If  these  cars  were  each 
twenty-five  feet  long,  they  would  extend  in  an  unbroken  line  to  a 
distance  of  eight  hundred  and  ninety-five  thousand  feet,  or  very 
nearly  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles.  The  following  table  shows 
the  steps  of  this  production  from  first  to  last.  It  is  divided  into  ir- 
regular periods  coinciding  with  the  years  in  which  comprehensive 
■estimates  of  the  Stock  on  Hand  in  the  commercial  world  were  made 
by  reliable  and  painstaking  authorities;  a  subject  that  will  be  treated 
further  on." 

'  The  reader  who  may  desire  to  trace  the  annual  or  decennial  output  of  the  precious 
metals  since  the  Discovery  of  America  will  fine  it  tabulated  at  length  in  the  first  edi- 
tion of  this  work.  Chapter  XXII. 


PkODLCTION,   CONSUMPTION    AND    STOCKS    OK    METAL.  447 

Tkodiction  ok  Gold  and  Sii.vkr  Simk  thk  Discovkry  of  America, 

Sums  in  Millions  of  American  Dollars. 
Period.  Years.  Gold.  Silver.  Total.       Cumulative. 


1492  to  1543 

54 

92 

33 

125 

125 

I  346  to  i6cx} 

55 

150 

630 

780 

905 

HKJI  to  1650 

50 

138 

612 

750 

i.(>55 

Plunder  of  .-\sia 

(100) 

172 

343 

515 

2.170 

11.51  to  1675 

25 

70 

305 

375 

2.545 

1676  to  1700 

25 

'  "7 

298 

415 

2,960 

1 701  to  1725 

25 

313 

270 

585 

3.545 

1726  to  1750 

25 

575 

350 

925 

4.470 

1751  to  I77«) 

26 

270 

530 

800 

5.270 

I'luiuier  of  .\sia 

(100) 

— 

— 

? 

? 

1777  to  iSoS 

32 

320 

980 

1,300 

6.570 

I  Soy  to  1S23 

20 

172 

463' 

635 

7,205 

1829  to  1S38 

10 

125 

220 

345 

7.550 

1S39  to  1S50 

12 

452 

373 

825 

8.375 

1S51  to  1S60 

10 

1,420 

405 

1,825 

10,200 

iS<)i  to  1870 

10 

1. 135 

490 

1.O25 

11,825 

1S71  to  1S76 

6 

582 

413 

995 

12,820 

1877  to  1883 

7 

74S 

t.97 

1.445 

14.205 

1SS4  to  1893 

10 

1,210 

1. 515 

2,725 

16,990 

i8i)4  to  1896 

3 

582 

633 

1,215 

18,205 

1897  to  1S99 

3 

8  20 

630 

1.450 

19.655 

Totals,  508  9.466  10,189  19,655 

The  Table  is  to  read  as  follows,  taking  the  last  line  as  an  example: 
During  the  three  years,  1897  to  1899  inclusive,  there  were  produced 
throughout  the  world  820  million  dollars  worth  of  gold  and  (at  coin- 
ing value)  630  million  dollars  worth  of  silver,  together  1,450  millions, 
which,  when  added  to  the  previous  output,  makes  19,655  millions  pro- 
duced altogether. 

We  have  next  to  deal  with  the  Consumption  and  Residue  of  these 
metals,  or  the  Stock  on  Hand  in  the  world  employed  as  money,  after 
the  Consumption  is  deducted  from  the  Output. 

Out  of  the  6,500  and  odd  millions  acquired  by  the  European  world 
down  to  the  period  of  the  Spanish-American  Revolutions  of  1810,  less 
than  500  millions  were  obtained  through  commerce;  the  remaining 
6,000  millions  were  the  fruits  of  conquest,  plunder  and  slavery.'  The 
cost  of  their  production  cannot  be  estimated  in  dollars,  but  in  human 
life,  in  blood,  in  tears,  and  in  the  agony  of  immolated  and  expiring 
races.  Whether  any  considerable  portion  of  the  coins  minted  before 
1810  are  still  in  circulation,  or  not,  has  no  bearing  upon  the  discus- 
sion. Even  were  they  all  lost  or  destroyed,  it  would  remain  true  that 
their  value  affected  the  value  of  every  ounce  of  metal  which  has  been 

'  Danson  says  5,850  millions;  Humboldt,  5,986;  Del  Mar,  6,192;  Tooke,  6,700; 
Jacob,  6,803  ;  Soetbeer,  7,834  millions.  Danson'sand  Humboldt's  estimates  are  con- 
fined to  .Xmerica;  the  other  estimates  include  the  acquisitions  from  conquest  and  com- 
merce. 


44S  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

produced  since  18 10.  It  follows  that  the  present  value  of  gold,  that 
is  to  say,  its  value  in  commodities,  is  derived  in  part  from  its  value 
during  the  lengthy  period  when  it  was  all  acquired  through  conquest 
and  slavery.  This  result  is  deducible  from  the  principle  of  Quantity, 
or  supply  and  demand,  and  the  practice  of  free  coinage. 

Between  1810  and  the  present  time  there  have  been  produced  from 
the  mines,  chiefly  those  of  America,  Russia,  Australasia,  British  India 
and  South  Africa,  about  13,000  million  dollars,  that  is  to  say,  in  a 
single  century  twice  as  much  as  in  the  three  centuries  previously.  Of 
this  amount,  about  4,500  millions  were  obtained  by  means  of  slave, 
serf,  peon,  or  "contract"  labour;  while  the  remainder  was  mainly 
the  product  of  free  labour,  chiefly  in  North  America  and  Australasia, 
a  small  proportion  having  been  derived  from  commerce  with  Asia 
and  Africa.  The  product  of  Asia,  outside  of  British  India  (the  My- 
sore mines)  is  a  negligible  quantity,  because  it  has  nearly  all  been  con- 
sumed in  Asia, and  in  addition  thereto,  4,000  millions  of  western  metal. 

Taking  the  two  periods  together,  the  general  results  are  as  follows : 
from  the  Discovery  of  America  to  the  present  time  the  European 
world  has  acquired  19,500  and  odd  millions,  of  which  1,000  millions 
were  obtained  by  conquest,  9,500  millions  by  slavery,  and  9,000  mil- 
lions chiefly  by  free  mining  labour. 

It  is  submitted  that  these  circumstances  entirely  controvert  and  de- 
stroy the  theory,  so  often  proclaimed  by  writers  but  imperfectly  ac- 
quainted with  mining  and  the  conditions  under  which  the  bulk  of  the 
precious  metals  have  been  produced.  That  theory  is  that  the  value 
of  gold  is  due  to  the  cost  of  its  production.  Who  will  undertake  to 
compute  what  it  cost  in  money  to  plunder  the  1,000  millions  of  gold 
and  silver  acquired  from  Asia  by  conquest?  How  is  it  possible  to 
compute  in  money  what  it  cost  to  procure  9,500  millions  by  slavery? 
Are  the  lives  of  the  twenty  millions  of  aborigines,  whom  the  Spaniards 
and  Portuguese  destroyed  in  America,  by  condemning  them  to  mine- 
slavery,  reducible  to  dollars  and  cents?  Is  there  a  price  of  blood, 
anguish,  and  despair?  To-day  the  mines  sf  Nertschinsk  and  others 
in  Russia  are  worked  by  convicts  and  serfs;  the  mines  of  Mysore  are 
worked  by  native  Indians  practically  reduced  to  a  condition  of  slavery ; 
the  mines  of  Witwatersrand,  in  South  Africa,  so  long  as  they  were 
worked  at  all,  were  worked  by  100,000  negros,  involuntary  labourers, 
contract-labourers,  naked  African  labourers,  bought  from  their  chiefs 
at  so  much  per  head  and  thrust  into  the  subterranean  caverns  of 
Johannesburg  to  win  gold  for  distant  shareholders  in  London  and 
Paris.    Who  will  pretend  to  assert  that  the  cost  of  committing  these 


PRODUCTION,    CONSUMPTION     AND    STOCKS    OF    METAL.  449 

Crimes  against  Mankind  is  reflected  in  the  purchasing  power  of  gold? 
We  know  well  that  it  is  not;  that  the  value  of  gold, as  of  all  other  things, 
is  not  the  result  of  cost,  but  of  supply  and  demand,  wholly  irrespec- 
tive of  cost.  The  very  same  class  of  men  who  uphold  the  delusive 
theory  that  value  is  due  to  cost  of  production,  repudiate  it,  whenever 
it  fails  to  support  their  interests.  For  example,  when  the  Californian 
and  Australian  mines  threatened  Europe  with  a  great  and  sudden  in- 
crement of  gold,  a  representative  of  this  class,  to  wit,  Richard  Cobdcn, 
wrote  in  the  Preface  to  his  translation  of  Chevalier's  work:  "There 
must  be  a  fall  in  the  value  of  gold,  in  consequence  of  its  greatly  in- 
creased quantity."  Chevalier  himself  e.vpressed  the  same  oi)inion  in 
almost  the  same  words.  Here  it  is  quantity,  or  demand  and  suppiv, 
that  affects  value;  not  cost  of  production;  and  this  view  of  the  sub- 
ject was  so  quickly  and  widely  recognized  to  be  true,  that  Holland 
and  Belgium  demonetised  gold,  France  was  on  the  point  of  following 
suit,  and  England  gravely  listened  to  Maclarenand  other  doctrinaires 
and  alarmists,  who,  as  a  remedy  for  the  expected  fall  of  gold, advised 
a  return  to  corn-rents  and  barter!  A  similar  renunciation  of  tiie 
theory  that  value  is  due  to  cost  of  production,  took  place  a  quarter 
of  a  century  later,  when  it  was  pretended  that  the  Comstock  Lode 
threatened  to  "deluge"  the  world  with  silver.  The  deluge  meant 
quantity  and  no  matter  what  it  cost  to  produce,  it  was  the  threatened 
quantity  that  worked  the  demonetisation  of  silver  and  not  the  cost 
of  its  production,  which  was  and  .'^till  remains  unknowable. 

Prodcction.  CoNSLMrno.N,  AND  Loss  OK  TMK  PKKcior.s  Metals. 

Table  shoving  the  cumulative  Supplies  of  the  Precious  Metals  to  the  European 
7i'orU,the  Stock  on  I/anJ,^  the  cumulative  Consumption  ami  the  Proportion  Consumed 
in  the  Arts  or  by -wear,  tear  ami  loss,  or  exported  to  Asia  :'  compared  -.cith  the  Supplies, 
at  various  periods.      Sums  in  millions  of  American  dollars. 

Cumulative  Stock  of 

Date.  Supplies  Tree.  Met. 

to  date.  at  date. 

1675  2,545  1.250 

1700  2,960  1.485 

1776  5.270  1.375 

1808  6,570  1,900 

1828  7.205  1,565 

1838  7.550  1.350 

1850  8,375  2.000 

i860  10,200  2.800 

1870  11.825  3,600 

1876  12.S20  3.7'» 

1883  14.265  '  4,000 

1893  16,990  3.700 

1896  18.205  *  4.500 

1899  '9.655  5.890 
Notes  i  to  4  belonging  to  the  above  Table  will  be  found  on  the  next  page. 


Cumulative 

Proportion 

Consumption 

per  cent,  of 

and  Export  to 

Consumption 

Asia. 

to  Supplies. 

1.295 

50 

1.475 

50 

3.895 

74 

4.f>95 

71 

5.640 

78 

6,200 

82 

6.375 

76 

7,400 

72 

8.225 

70 

9, 1 20 

71 

10,265 

72 

13.290 

78 

13.705 

/5 

13.775 

70 

45©  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

The  Table  is  to  be  read  as  follows,  taking  the  last  line  as  an  ex- 
ample: Down  to  the  year  1899  there  had  been  produced  19,655  mil- 
lion dollars  worth  of  gold  and  silver,  of  which  13,775  millions  had 
been  consumed  in  the  arts,  or  else  exported  to  Asia,  that  is  to  say, 
about  yoper  cent., or  more  than  two- thirds  of  the  whole;  leaving  5,890 
millions  on  hand  in  the  commercial  world  in  the  form  of  coins  and 
bullion.  The  whole  of  the  exports  to  Asia  may  also  justly  be  regarded 
as  having  been  consumed  in  the  arts.  The  gilding  of  domes,  pillars, 
statues  and  pictures;  the  fabrication  of  solid  images,  shrines,  fonts, 
and  vessels  of  gold  and  silver  for  the  temples;  the  manufacture  of 
bangles,  torques,  chains,  rings  and  other  articles  of  jewelry ;  the  gild- 
ing and  silvering  of  vestments,  books,  lacquer-ware  and  crockery; 
the  filling  of  decayed  teeth  with  gold  or  silver;  besides  numerous 
other  arts,  consume  immense  quantities  of  the  precious  metals  in  the 
Orient.  AVhat  is  not  thus  consumed  is,  for  safe-keeping,  buried  in  the 
earth,  with  a  secrecy  that  commonly  defeats  all  attempts  to  discover 
it  after  the  owner  is  dead.  Practically,  it  is  as  non-existent  as  it  was 
before  it  was  mined.  The  general  result  is  that  two-thirds  of  the  en- 
tire output  of  the  precious  metals  is  consumed  in  the  arts;  leaving 
but  one-third  on  hand  in  the  form  of  money. 

With  regard  to  the  stocks  of  metallic  money,  we  regret  to  be  again 
obliged  to  refer  to  the  defective  and  misleading  statistics  of  the  Mint 
Bureau;  but  this  is  unavoidable.  The  duty  of  the  Mint  Bureau  re- 
lates to  coinage,  not  to  collecting  the  statistics  of  foreign  moneys, 
nor  the  establishment  of  a  school  of  Political  Economy.  Private  en- 
terprise and  individual  opinion,  however  eminent,  have  but  little 
chance  of  success  in  competing  with  a  school  that  publishes  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  doctrinal  works  and  distributes  them  broadcast 
throughout  the  world,  without  price.  This  system  discourages  both 
authors  and  students;  for  who  will  pay  to  learn  the  truth,  when  he 
can  obtain  a  plausible  fiction  for  the  asking?  The  system  is  as  bad 
as  the  illiterate  Chinese  Calendar,  which  the  Celestial  government 
fabricates  and  forces  upon  its  people,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  scientific 

Notes  belonging  to  Table  on  page  449. 
'  The  estimates  of  the  Stocks  on  Hand  at  the  earlier  dates  given,  are  those  of  King, 
Humboldt,  Jacob,  Tooke,  Newmarch,  McCuUoch,  and  other  reliable  authorities.  The 
four  last  estimates  are  those  of  the  present  writer.  '•'  Nearly  all  the  precious  metals 
exported  to  Asia,  except  those  plundered  by  the  European  powers,  have  been  used  up 
in  the  arts  in  Asia  or  buried  in  hoards;  and  are  therefore  practically  lost.  ^  Soetbeer 
computes  the  European  Stock  on  Hand  in  i88b  at  21  million  marks,  which  is  equal  to 
about  5,000  million  dollars,  crediting  Germany  with  2,636  millions  and  the  United 
States  with  3,756  million  marks;  too  much  in  both  cases.  See  his  "  Materialien,"  18S6, 
p.  77,  quoted  in  United  States  Mint  Report,  18S6,  p.  326.  *  Erroneously  estimated  in 
"  The  Science  of  Money,"  ed.  1896,  at  800,  instead  of  900,  million  pounds  sterling. 


PKDUUCTION,    CONSUMPTION,   AND    STOCKS    OK    MKTALS.  45  I 

information  on  the  subject.  Moreover,  so  long  as  the  American  Mint 
Bureau  obtains  the  support  of  Congress  in  this  matter,  will  that  body 
deprive  itself  of  all  information  concerning  the  production,  consump- 
tion ami  stock  of  the  precious  metals,  but  such  as  squares  with  the 
narrow  views  of  the  Mint  Director. 

For  e.xample,  that  officer  asserts  that  India  possesses  a  stock  of 
588I2  millions;  China,  750  millions;  and  Siam,  213^2  million  dollars, 
together,  1,532  million  dollars,  in  gold  and  silver,chiefly  silver  money; 
whereas,  the  highest  local  and  technical  authorities  and  most  i)ains- 
taking  estimates  on  the  subject,  do  not  credit  these  countries  with 
more  than  295  millions,  a  difference  of  no  less  than  1,237  millions! 
In  1893  Mr  V.  C.  Harrison,  the  Accountant-General  of  Madras,  and 
•Sir  David  lialfour,  both  estimated  the  metallic  money  of  British  India 
at  115  crores.  In  1898  Mr.  Harrison  estimated  the  money  of  India 
at  120  crores,  equal  in  value  to  about  240  million  gold  dollars.  In 
China,  there  is  practically  no  gold  or  silver  money,  e.vcept  in  the 
Imperial  treasury  and  at  the  seaports,  for  the  purpose  of  trade  with 
foreigners.  A  liberal  estimate  of  these  stocks  is  35  million  dollars, 
and  of  this  amount  some  portion  has  recently  been  phindcred  by  the 
invading  allies.  Siam,  with  an  indigent  population  of  five  millions, 
is  credited  by  the  Mint  Bureau  with  213)^  millions  in  golil  and  silver 
money  I  This  would  be  more  than  $200  for  every  family  in  the  king- 
dom: it  would  exceed  the  metallic  resources  of  London,  which  con- 
ducts the  exchanges  of  the  commercial  world;  a  claim  too  prepos- 
terous for  argument.  The  observance  of  the  Buddhic  religion;'  the 
frequent  employment  of  rice  for  money-payments;  the  prevalence  of 
slavery  and  barter;  the  petty  dimensions  of  its  commerce  and  rev- 
enues; and  the  low  scale  of  prices  in  Siam,  combine  to  warrant  the 
opinion  that  five  millions,  instead  of  213J/2  millions,  will  fully  cover 
the  circulation  of  gold  and  silver  in  that  country.  A  somewhat  sim- 
ilar condition  of  affairs  in  China,  where,  however,  the  population  is 
numerous  and  commerce  active,  has  saved  it  from  the  fate  of  Poland. 
When  the  Germans  were  asked  the  motive  of  their  "punitive"  ex- 
peditions into  the  heart  of  China  they  replied  that  they  were  looking 
for  the  750  mdlions  which  the  .Vmencan  Mint  Reports  asserted  were 
to  be  found  in  that  Empire.  They  searched  for  these  millions  with 
rifle,  sword  and  dynamite;  they  outraged,  tortured  and  slew  50,000 
people;  they  tore  down  the  houses  of  the  living  and  dug  into  the 
graves  of  the  dead;  but  they  got  little  more  than  a  few  trinkets  and 
furs.  The  currency  of  China  consists  of  overvalued  chuen,  or  '*  cash," 
'  See  Buddhic  interdict  of  the  precious  metals  in  next  note. 


452  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

practically  irredeemable  notes  cast  in  copper;  and  when  the  Germans, 
French  and  other  foreign  invaders  of  China  became  fully  satisfied  of 
this  fact,  they  declared  that  the  war  was  over,  and  withdrew  their 
predatory  bands.  Had  China  possessed  the  millions  of  silver  assigned 
to  them  by  our  propagandist  Mint  Bureau,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  invading  armies  would  have  remained  long  enough  to  de- 
stroy the  Empire  and  appropriate  its  treasures.  Prudent,  indeed, 
were  the  ordinances  of  Buddha  which  forbade  his  followers  from  using 
the  precieus  metals;  *  and  the  Chinese  have  only  themselves  to  blame 
if  they  have  failed  to  fully  appreciate  their  significance. 

If  the  proofs  already  advanced,  showing  that  the  value  of  the  precious 
metals  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  cost  of  producing  them, 
should  fail  to  convince  the  followers  of  the  erroneous  theory  so  com- 
monly entertained  on  this  subject;  the  Taxation  of  the  Product, »a 
topic  invariably  omitted  from  view  by  the  promulgators  of  this  theory, 
should  of  itself  be  sufficient  to  suggest  doubts  of  its  correctness.  All 
of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  acquisitions  of  the  precious  metals, 
down  to  the  Spanish-American  revolutions,  yielded  to  their  respective 
governments  in  royalties  and  other  exactions,  about  one-fourth.  The 
royalty  during  the  most  productive  period  was  a  Quinto,  or  twenty 
per  cent.,  but  beside  the  royalty  there  were  exacted  other  imposts, 
fees  and  dues,  which  often  brought  the  proportion  to  a  third,  and 
sometimes  to  more;  so  that  although  the  Quinto  was  in  less  produc- 
tive periods  reduced  to  ten  and  at  last  to  five  per  cent.,  it  may  fairly 
be  estimated  that  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  governments  obtained 
about  a  fourth  of  the  entire  product.  A  still  greater  proportion  of 
governmental  share  is  to  be  extended  to  the  1,300  millions  obtained 
from  the  mines  of  Russia  and  Siberia,  whether  before  or  after  the 
Spanish-American  revolutions.  Of  the  450  millions  yielded  by  the 
Transvaal  mines  down  to  the  period  of  the  war,  it  has  been  stated  that 
the  Boer  government,  by  means  of  royalties,  imposts  and  monopolies, 
exacted  as  much  as  ten  per  cent.  Practically,  the  only  output  of  the 
mines  which  has  altogether,  or  nearly  altogether,  escaped  the  payment 
of  royalties,  seigniorages,  or  other  onerous  mint  charges,  has  been 
that  of  America  since  the  Spanish-American  revolution,  and  that 
of  Australasia.  Together  this  output  may  be  roughly  estimated  at 
10,000  millions. 

The  general  outcome  is  that  about  one-fourth  of  one-half  of  the 

■•  This  ordinance  is  mentioned  in  Appleton's  Encyclopedia,  1859,  vol.  iv,  p.  68.  Mr. 
Ball,  in  his  "  Geology  of  India,"  noticed  the  aversion  of  the  Buddhists  of  Laddak  to 
search  for  gold  or  silver.  The  Chinese  do  not  permit  gold-mining  and  greatly  restrict 
the  mining  of  silver. 


PRODUCTION,   CONSUMPTION    ANU    STOCKS    OF    METAL.  453 

entire  product  of  the  precious  metals, since  the  Discovery  of  America, 
has  been  appropriated  by  governments  in  the  form  of  Taxation.  The 
cost  of  production  theorists  are  quite  silent  on  this  subject:  they 
neither  charge  this  governmental  sequestration  (some  2,500  million 
dollars)  to  cost  of  production,  nor  deiluct  it  from  the  produce.  .To 
do  so  would  fail  to  make  the  result  square  with  their  dogma;  and 
so  they  either  omit  it  entirely  from  view  or  else  refer  to  it  in  some 
relation  not  connected  with  the  value,  or  the  assumed  source  of  the 
value,  of  the  precious  metals. 

From  this  topic  we  turn  to  a  consideration  of  the  Stocks  on  Hand 
of  gold  and  silver. 

It  is  impossible  to  make  any  estimate  of  the  coins  and  bullion  em- 
!>loyed,  or  ready  to  be  coined  and  employed,  for  money,  to  which  ob- 
jections cannot  be  made.  Some  writers  suppose  that  the  general 
-lock  of  metallic  money  has  always  a  tendency  to  increase;  there- 
.'ore  they  object  to  the  validity  of  any  table  which  fails  to  show  such 
increase.  This  theory  does  not  agree  with  fact.  In  many  states 
i^otes  or  paper-moneys  are  rapidly  usurping  the  place  of  coins.  This  is 
notably  the  case  in  the  Roman,  European,  or  Occidental  world.  The 
general  progress  of  the  note-system  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  the 
early  part  of  the  19th  century  notes  formed  about  one-fourth  of  the 
entire  circulation  of  the  Occidental  world.  At  the  present  time  notes 
form  rather  more  than  one-half.  The  substitution  of  notes  for  coins 
is  also  to  be  observed  in  British  India.  In  China  the  use  of  small 
cheques  is  very  common.  On  the  other  hand,  the  cheque  system, 
except  in  very  large  transactions,  is  not  in  vogue  in  France,  nor  in 
some  other  F^uropean  States.  In  England  and  the  United  States 
cheques  are  largely  substituted  for  coins.  Other  writers  suppose  that 
increased  production  and  great  coinages  of  the  precious  metals  imply 
an  increased  circulation  of  coins.  This  also  is  an  erroneous  theory. 
More  than  two-thirds  of  the  entire  pi  oduct  of  the  precious  metals  are 
used  up  in  the  arts,  or  else  devoted  to  making  good  the  wear,  tear 
and  loss  of  coins.  The  coinage,  so  much  relied  upon  by  other  writers, 
is  in  fact  not  a  reliable  guide  to  the  circulation.  The  system  of  gra- 
tuitous coinage,  pursued  by  the  leading  states  of  the  world,  destroys 
all  traces  of  production  and  all  indications  of  the  circulation.  This 
system  permits  the  miner,  assayer,  or  bullion  broker,  to  sell  any 
quantity  of  gold  (in  the  United  States  not  less  than  $100.  in  England 
not  less  than  $50,000  in  any  one  lot)  to  the  Mints,  at  a  fixeil  price. 
This  price  in  the  United  States  is  $20.67  per  Troy  ounce  fine.  The 
ounce  is  then  coined  into  precisely  $20.67;  so  that  the  depositor  of 


454  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

bullion  is  paid  for  it  in  coins  containing  exactly  the  same  quantity  of 
fine  gold  that  he  deposited;  less  a  nominal  charge  for  refining.  The 
alloys  of  copper  and  silver  mingled  with  the  gold  in  the  coins,  to  harden 
them,  are  furnished  by  the  government  for  nothing.  As  by  this  sys- 
tem not  a  grain  of  bullion  is  lost  by  the  depositor,  and  there  is  prac- 
tically no  penalty  for  mutilating  or  melting  coins,  the  same  bullion 
can  be,  and  often  is,  deposited  and  coined  over  and  over  again,  now 
in  one  country,  now  in  another,  without  loss  to  the  depositor.  Im- 
mense sums  of  Australian  gold  bullion  and  coins  areannually  deposited 
and  gratuitously  coined  in  the  San  Francisco  Mint.  With  the  pro- 
ceeds of  these  deposits,  which  are  received  in  American  gold  coins, 
bills  of  exchange  on  London  are  purchased.  These  bills  will  purchase 
an  equal  sum  of  gold  in  London,  and  this  gold  can  be  deposited  and 
gratuitously  coined  in  the  London  Mint.  Upon  a  turn  of  exchang*^, 
these  coins  (English  sovereigns)  can  be  transported  to  Philadelphia 
and  there  recoined  into  American  eagles.  Under  these  circumstances 
the  coinages  are  largely  m  excess  of  production.  The  Mint  Bureau 
makes  it  a  practice  to  ask  the  depositors  if  their  metal  is  native  or 
foreign;  and  the  replies  are  gravely  entered  in  the  oiificial  records 
and  published  in  the  Mint  Reports,  as  facts  beyond  question.  They 
are  about  as  reliable  as  the  Census  returns.  If  the  depositor  has  any 
motive  for  concealment — as  very  often  he  has — he  will  melt  his  bul- 
lion and  have  it  refined  and  stamped  by  a  native  assayer.  It  then 
becomes  impossible  to  discover  its  origin ;  for  all  refined  gold  is  alike. 
Still  other  theorists  believe  that  an  increase  of  bank  reserves  indi- 
cates an  increased  circulation  of  coins.  In  fact,  it  may  be  quite  the 
reverse.  The  import  and  export  account,  so  much  relied  upon  by 
others,  is  perhaps  the  most  fallacious  of  all  indications  concerning  the 
•stocks  of  gold  coins  and  bullion  retained  in  various  countries.  The 
dealers  in  exchange  would  not  be  able  to  make  a  living  if  the  public 
were  permitted  to  know  how  much  gold  they  shipped  to  and  fro. 
What  they  disclose  is  what  they  choose  to  disclose:  what  they  con- 
ceal is  often  far  more  important.  Immense  sums  pass  in  and  out  of 
the  country,  both  from  Mexico,  or  to  Canada  and  elsewhere,  without 
appearing  in  the  American  records.  But  they  sometimes  appear  in 
other  records,  and  these  can  be  got  at  if  necessary.  The  amounts 
carried  in  and  out  by  travellers,  emigrants,  seamen  and  others,  are 
in  the  aggregate  also  immense.  These  sums  do  not  appear  in  the 
Commerce  and  Navigation  accounts,  they  are  not  "officially"  known 
to  the  Mint  Bureau,  which,  therefore,  entirely  ignores  them  and  goes 
on  heaping  up  hundreds  of  fictitious  millions  of  gold  in  the  hands  of 


PRODUCTION,    CONSUMl'TION    AND    STOCKS   OF    METAL.  455 

the  public;  whereas,  in  fact,  except  in  the  sparsely  populated  mining 
states  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  there  is  hardly  any  gold  at  all  in  circula- 
tion in  America.  A  gold  piece  offered  to  a  tradesman  in  Boston,  New- 
York,  or  Chicago,  would  excite  his  unaffected  astonishment.' 

Witli  regard  to  the  Commerce  and  Navigation  accounts,  anyone 
who  will  take  the  trouble  to  comivire  the  Exports  from  the  United 
States  tt)  Canada,  as  published  by  the  American  government,  with 
the  Imports  into  Canada  from  the  United  States,  for  the  same 
period  of  time,  will  perceive  at  once  how  defective  and  unreliable 
are  the  former.  These  two  accounts  should  tally,  if  not  as  to  value, 
certainly  as  to  quantities.  In  point  of  fact,  they  do  not  tally  in 
either  respect;  and  the  discrepancies  amount  to  a  very  large  ]iro- 
portion  of  the  entire  trade.  Still  greater  discrepancies  appear  when 
a  like  comparison  is  maile  in  the  trade  accounts  between  the  United 
States  and  other  countries.  But  as  such  last  comparison,  to  be  fair, 
should  run  through  many  years,  and  be  subject  to  many  different 
allowances,  it  is  not  offered  as  evidence  in  connection  with  tlie  pres- 
ent subject. 

The  objections  mentioned  are  only  a  few  of  those  which  have  been 
made  to  published  estimates  of  circulating  coins  and  bullion.  Their 
name  is  legion.  In  this,  as  in  other  technical  matters,  the  reader  must 
be  content  to  accept  the  judgment  of  those,  who  by  experience,  study 
and  frequent  tests  and  comparisons,  venture  to  form  and  |)ublish  a 
deliberate  opinion  on  the  matter;  for  at  best,  with  the  prevailing 
systems  of  free-mining, gratuitous-coinage  and  the  unrestrained  melt- 
ing of  gold,  all  conclusions  on  the  sul)ject  are  but  opinions.  The  only 
approximately  certain  factor  in  such  ccMnputations  is  the  visible  gold, 
that  which  is  reported  to  be  on  deposit  in  public  treasuries  and  banks. 
Even  this  is  not  certain,  for  what  is  called  gold  in  the  reserves  is 
sometimes  only  gold  certificates;  the  gold  being  deposited  elsewhere 
and  therefore  counted  twice.  With  these  explanations  and  reserva- 
tions we  now  venture  to  submit  a  Table  of  the  coins  and  bullion  em- 
ployed, or  ready  to  be  coinetl  and  employed,  for  Money,  in  the  various 
countries  of  the  worki,  at  dates  nearest  to  1879  and  1899.  This  in- 
cludes the  sums  in  public  depositories  and  bank  reserves,  and  excludes 
plate,  gold-leaf  and  jewelry. 

*  The  method  of  the  Mint  lUireau  is  to  accept  the  inflated  production  statistics  and 
deduct  from  such  prmluction  the  declared  exports,  less  imports  and  the  declared 
amount  consumed  in  the  arts,  and  then  to  assume  that  the  remainder  must  be  in 
the  countr>',  in  the  form  of  coin  or  bullion  awaiting  coinajje'  T!  is  is  the  mtthiKi  of  a 
child.  The  truth  is  that,  except  the  Visible  Stoik  (in  Treasuries  and  in  Hanks),  and  a 
few  millions  circulating  in  the  mining  states,  there  is  hardly  any  gold  at  all  in  the 
United  States.  Kverybody  in  America  is.  and  has  been,  well  aware  of  these  facts; 
that  is  to  say,  everybody  except  the  Mint  Directors  of  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years. 


456 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


Stocks  of  Metallic  Money  in  Various  Countries. 

Table  shoimng  the  Population  and  Stock  on  Hand  in  public  depositories  and  in  cir- 
culatioft,  of  Gold  and  Silver  coins  and  Bar  Bullion,  in  the  Roman  and  Oriental 
Worlds,  at  dates  nearest  to  i8jg  and  i8gg,  respectively.  Population  in  millions; 
suins  of  coitis  and  bullion  in  millions  of  dollars.  In  the  Roman  world  the  silver  is 
computed  at  the  mint  value;  in  the  Oriental  7vorld  at  the  market  value. 

1879  1S99 


Countries. 

France, 

United  Kingdom, 

German  Empire,    . 

Russia  in  Europe, 

Russia  in  Asia,  . 

United  States, 

Mexico,  .  .  . 

Other  Independent  States  in 
America,' 

Canada, 

Spain,-      .... 

Portugal, 

Austro-Hungary, 

Italy 

Netherlands,     . 

Belgium, 

Switzerland, 

Greece. 

Sweden,    .... 

Norway, 

Denmark, 

European  Colonies,^ 

Egypt 

Turkey  in  Europe,* 

Roumania,   Servia  and   Bul- 
garia,    .... 

Turkey   in  Asia,  and  Tripol 
in  Africa,  .         , 
Total  Roman,    . 
'India,' 

China,*     .... 

Japan,'  ... 

Siam,*       .... 

Other  Oriental,'     . 
Total  Oriental,'" 


Pop. 

Gold  and 
Silver. 

Pop. 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Total, 

37 

1020 

39 

HOG 

500 

1600 

34 

520 

40 

400 

100 

500 

44 

400 

52 

500 

200 

700 

74 

250  ) 

8 

25  j" 

130 

750 

250 

1000 

49 

250 

75 

600 

517 

1117 

10 

60 

13 

3 

97 

100 

36 

50 

41 

14 

J.O 

54 

4 

30 

5 

20 

20 

40 

17 

170 

19 

35 

35 

70 

4 

55 

5 

5 

18 

23 

37 

80 

46 

120 

100 

220 

27 

40 

32 

50 

40 

go 

4 

60 

5 

30 

50 

80 

6 

85 

7 

30 

40 

70 

3 

10 

3 

10 

S 

iS 

2 

10 

2 

I 

5 

6 

4 

10 

5 

13 

7 

20 

2 

5 

2 

5 

2 

7 

2 

5 

2 

15 

5 

20 

10 

50 

16 

40 

40 

80 

7 

20 

9 

15 

10 

25 

n 

-1 

5 

? 

4 

25 

"^ 

( 

II 

■) 

?  ) 

17 

25 

17 

■? 

? 

25 

454 


3255 


581 


—  5S90 


295 

250 

297 

5 

250 

255 

120 

40 

120 

— 

35 

35 

40 

,    50 

45 

25 

30 

55 

5 

5 

5 

I 

4 

5 

/D 

TOO 

75 

— 

— 

100 

535 


445 


542  — 


450 


Notes  i  to  10  belonging  to  the  above  Table  will  be  found  on  the  next  page. 

The  intelligent  reader  does  not  need  to  be  reminded  that  this  Table 
does  not  represent  the  stocks  of  Money  in  the  countries  named,  but 
only  such  portion  of  the  money  as  consists  of  gold  and  silver  Coins 
and  bullion.  Owing  to  the  gratuitous  coinage  for  gold, a  policy  which, 
(following  the  example  of  Spain  in  1608  and  England  in  1666),  has 
been  enacted  into  law  in  the  principal  commercial  states,  these  stocks 
are  continually  shifting,  the  metal  being  transported  from  one  country 


L 


PRODUCTION,   CONSUMPTION    AND    STOCKS    OK    METAL.  457 

to  another,  at  the  dictate  of  stock-specuhitors,  bullion-dealers  and 
bill-drawers.  Consequently  the  estimates  are. and  only  can  be, roughly 
approximative.  The  national  Measure  of  Value  in  this  boasted  age 
of  civilization  is  in  fact  a  thing  of  india-rubber. 

In  combining  these  stocks  of  metal  with  the  other  moneys  em- 
ployed in  the  States  mentioned,  with  tiie  view  of  roughly  determin- 
ing the  entire  currency  or  Measure  of  Value,  in  each  State  (a  matter 
that  ought  not  to  be,  but  is  perforce,  left  to  conjecture),  several  im- 
portant considerations  are  to  be  held  in  view.  A  portion  of  these 
metallic  stocks — usually  a  fourth — should  be  deducted  from  the  cir- 
culation as  metallic  money  reserved  to  redeem  promissory  paper  is- 
sues. In  some  States  the  machinery  of  the  financial  department  is 
so  unskilfully  devised  that  a  considerable  portion,  sometimes  nearly 
all,  of  the  metallic  stock  remains  permanently  in  the  Treasury,  with- 
out any  lawful  means  of  putting  it  into  circulation.  These  hoards 
should  also  be  deducted  from  the  circulation:  because  they  do  not 
circulate.  In  other  states,  for  example,  Russia,  Germany  and  France, 
very  large  metallic  stocks  are  purposely  and  permanently  kept  out  of 
circulation,  being  dedicated  as  War  Funds,  to  be  used  only  in  cases 
of  emergency.  In  some  States  the  cheque  system  so  largely  supplants 
the  use  of  money,  that  to  compute  the  latter  without  taking  the  for- 
mer into  consideration,  would  lead  to  gross  misapprehension.  Such 
is  the  case  in  England  and  the  United  States.  On  the  other  hand, 
to  regard  cheques  as  money,  by  adding  together  the  sum  of  both,  as 

Notes  belonging  to  Table  on  page  456. 
'  The  "  Other  Independent  States  in  America"  include  Central  America,  with  a 
population  in  the  year  1S99  of  about  three  millions,  and  South  America,  with  a  pop- 
ulation of  about  thirty-eight  millions.  '  In  Spain,  gold  coins  commaml  27  to  2S  per 
cent,  premium,  and  are  not  in  circulation.  Consular  Report,  No  243,  p.  474.  '  The 
"  European  Colonies  "  include  the  principal  \Vest  India  Islands,  population  about 
three  millions;  Cape  Colony,  two  millions;  South  African  Republics,  two  millions; 
Straits  Settlements, four  millions;  and  Australasia,  live  millions.  *  "Turkey  in  Kurope" 
includes  Roumelia,  Bosnia,  and  Herzegovina.  These  states,  together  with  Roumania, 
Servia  and  Bulgaria,  total  population  about  t6  millions,  were  all  lunipcil  under  "  Tur- 
keyin  Europe  "  in  the  estimates  of  1879.  '  The  stock  of  coins  in  British  India  amounts 
to  120  crores,  or  1,200  million  silver  rupees,  nominally  about  52S  million  dollars,  but 
worth  in  gold  dollars  less  than  half  that  sum.  I'he  sum  of  five  crores  is  allowed  for 
the  native  states.  Consult  Harrison's  estimate,  in  the  "  History  of  .Monetary  Systems," 
English  edition,  p.  19.  *  For  population  of  China,  see  The  Cambridge  Encyclopedia, 
vol.  I.  It  is  therein  shown  from  numerous  authorities  and  from  the  censuses  of  C  hina, 
from  the  rice  tribute  and  other  imiications,  that  the  commonly  accepted  numbers  of 
the  population  are  the  result  of  Chinese  misrepresentations  to  the  foreign  ministers. 
'  For  money  of  Japan,  see  "  Money  and  Civilization,"  chapter  .\x.  Both  gold  and 
silver  command  a  premium  in  the  paper-notes,  which  form  the  bulk  of  the  circulation. 
Consular  Report.  No.  249,  p.  271.  "  F"or  money  of  .Siam,  see  remarks  in  the  text. 
'  "  Other  Oriental"  includes  I'ersia,  Afghanistan,  Turkistan,  French  Indo-China, 
.\nam.  ("amboge,  Cochin-China,  Tonkin,  (,'orea,  the  Straits  Settlements  and  the 
Philippines.  '"  The  .Asiatic  countries  are  now  for  the  first  time  included  in  a  tabula- 
tion of  the  world's  stock  of  the  precious  metals. 


458  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

has  been  done  by  Sir  John  Lubbock  and  others,  would  be  equally  mis- 
leading. Researches  on  this  subject  have  been  made  by  several 
writers,  but  by  none  with  entire  satisfaction,  the  data  being  defec- 
tive and  the  researches  recondite  and  perplexing.  Including  cheques, 
bills  of  exchange,  promissory  notes,  bonds,  book-accounts  and  all 
other  instruments  or  devices  of  credit  employed  in  payments,  as 
money,  or  as  substitutes  for  money,  the  efficiency  of  Credits  compared 
to  Money  is,  in  the  United  States,  as  one  is  to  twenty.  In  other 
words,  in  computing  the  Money  of  that  country,  a  sum  equal  to  one- 
twentieth  of  all  the  Credits  outstanding  at  a  normal  given  time  must 
be  added  to  the  current  Notes  and  Coins,  after  deducting  from  the 
latter  the  Reserves  and  Treasury  Hoards." 

The  relative  efficiency  of  Money  and  Credits  is  due  to  their  respec- 
tive ratios  of  activity,  or  frequency  of  use  and  re-use.  A  coin  or  note, 
say  to  the  value  of  $100,  may  make  say,  a  thousand  payments  in  the 
course  of  a  year,  thus  aggregating  payments  and  effecting  exchanges 
to  the  extent  of  $100,000,  per  annum.  A  cheque  for  $100  will  usually 
make  but  one  payment,  after  which  it  is  cancelled  or  destroyed.  It 
is  true  that  other  cheques  may  be  issued;  but  so  may  be  other  notes. 
In  an  analysis,  the  enquirer  is  only  concerned  with  the  efficiency  cf 
one  specimen  of  each  kind  of  money  or  money-substitute;  not  of  an 
unknown  number.  As  to  such  number  it  is  evident  that  it  can  not  be 
illimitable,  but  must  be  restricted  by  the  quantity  of  actual  Money 
in  circulation  and  by  the  condition  of  Credit.  In  short,  no  attempt 
to  determine  the  monetary  circulation  of  a  country,  and  its  influence 
upon  prices,  can  be  successful  without  taking  into  consideration  the 
varying  velocities  of  different  kinds  of  money,  or  substitutes  for 
money.  The  precious  metals  are  the  product  of  Nature,  whilst  money 
•is  the  product  of  Law;  one  may  be  studied  statically,  the  other  must 
be  studied  because  it  operates,  dynamically.  Time  is  thus  seen  to  be 
an  element  of  Price.  It  is  therefore  also  an  element  of  Value,  when 
Value  is  expressed  in  the  measurer  called  Money. 

*  Consult  the  author's  "  Science  of  Money,"  chapter  xiv,  for  a  more  complete  ex- 
position of  the  respective  velocities  of  Money  and  Credit  in  the  exchanges  of  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain. 


■■I 


CONCLUSION. 

Mining  policy  of  the  United  States — Historical  review — Free-mining  demands  the 
resumption  of  national  authority  over  the  mines — This  will  lead  to  more  correct  re- 
turns of  production — Recapitulation — Evolution  of  the  money  metals — Legal  crea- 
tion of  money — Substitution  of  Exchange  for  Uarter — Introduction  of  paper-notes — 
Evolution  of  money  apart  from  metals — Increase  of  its  mobility  or  frequency  of  use 
and  re-use — Time  as  an  element  of  price — The  increased  production  of  gold  and  the 
increased  velocity  of  money  has  more  than  made  good  the  demonetisation  of  silver. 

A  RECENT  writer  on  the  mining  policy  of  the  United  States  ob- 
serves that:  "There  is,  perhaps,  no  part  of  the  public  land 
policy  of  the  United  States  which  reflects  so  little  credit  upon  the 
government  as  the  management  and  disposal  of  that  portion  of  the 
public  domain  containing  mineral  deposits. '"  By  the  Act  of  i  785  there 
^vas  ordered  to  be  reserved  of  the  public  lands  "one-third  part  of  all 
gold,  silver,  lead  and  copper  mines,  to  be  sold  or  otherwise  disposed 
of  as  Congress  shall  hereafter  direct. "  This  funtl  was  intended  for  the 
maintenance  of  public  schools.  But  before  tracing  the  further  progress 
of  American  mining  legislation,  it  will,  perhaps,  be  better  to  turn  back 
for  a  moment  and  note  the  status  of  the  mineral  lands  acquired  by  the 
purchase  of  the  province  of  Louisiana.  In  17  12  the  French  Crown 
granted  this  province  to  Antoine  Crozat,  together  with  full  control  of 
all  the  mines  he  might  discover  in  it,  reserving  to  itself  one-fiftii  of  the 
gold  and  silver  and  one-tenth  of  all  other  minerals  produced.  In  1717 
these  grants  were  transferred  to  the  Mississippi  Company,  of  Paris; 
in  1722  the  Company  failed;  and  in  1731  the  grants  reverted  to  the 
Crown.  In  1762  the  province  of  Louisiana  was  acquired  by  Spain; 
in  1763  all  of  it  east  of  the  Mississippi  River  was  ceded  to  Creat 
Britain,  and  in  1783  this  portion  fell  to  the  United  States.  The  west- 
ern and  southern  portion  remained  in  the  possession  of  Spain  until 
1800,  when  it  was  ceded  to  France,  who,  in  1803,  sold  it  to  the  United 
States.  It  was  therefore  not  until  1803  that  the  Act  of  1785  became 
operative  in  the  Trans-Mississippi." 

'  Mr.  (ieo.  R.  Virtue,  on  "  The  Public  Ownership  of  Mineral  I.ancV*  in  the  United 
States,"  in  the  Chicago  Journal  of  Political  Economy,  March,  iSijj. 
'  Del  Mar's  "  Ilistor)-  of   Money  in  .\merica,"  chap.  x. 


460  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

From  that  date,  or  rather  from  1S07  to  1847,  the  American  govern- 
ment not  only  exercised  the  right  to  tax  the  mineral  produce  of  the 
public  lands,  it  undertook  the  entire  management  of  the  mines.  This 
was  done  for  15  years  by  the  Treasury  Department,  and  for  26  years 
by  the  War  Department.  No  gold  or  silver  mines  were  known  at  that 
period  in  the  Trans-Mississippi,  so  the  government  devoted  all  its 
attention  to  lead  and  copper.  The  lead  mines  were  leased  to  indi- 
viduals upon  a  rental  varying  from  10  to  26  per  cent,  of  the  produce, 
sometimes  $3  to  $5  per  thousand  pounds  of  mineral  raised.  After 
182 1  the  rental  was  uniformly  10  per  cent,  of  the  produce,  and  the 
lessee  was  bound  to  employ  a  certain  number  of  men  for  a  stated  por- 
tion of  the  year.     (Virtue.) 

In  1829  the  lead  lands  of  Missouri  were  thrown  open  to  private 
purchase,  while  those  of  the  Dubuque  region  continued  to  be  man- 
aged by  the  government.  In  1829,  owing  to  a  fall  in  the  price  of 
lead,  the  rental  was  reduced  in  this  region  from  10  to  6  per  cent,  of 
the  produce.  By  this  time  the  numbers,  wealth  and  influence  of  the 
miners,  smelters,  and  others  engaged  in  this  industry  had  become  so 
great,  while  the  Federal  government  was  so  weak,  that  the  authority 
of  the  latter  was  openly  disregarded,  and  by  the  middle  of  the  year 
1835  the  entire  receipts  from  rentals  ceased.  The  miners  declared 
that  the  Act  of  1829  relating  to  Missouri,  extended  to  the  Dubuque 
region,  and  in  1834,  at  a  sale  of  "public  lands"  in  the  Dubuque  re- 
gion, although  the  mineral  lands  were  expressly  reserved,  the  miners 
bought  public  lands,  and  while  some  seized  mineral  lands  under  the 
pretext  that  they  were  public  lands,  others,  who  held  mineral  lands 
under  leases,  refused  to  pay  the  rentals;  an  unlawful  act  in  which 
they  were  encouraged  by  the  Senator  from  Missouri  and  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Illinois.  The  legal  contests  to  which  this  condition  of  affairs 
gave  rise  were  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court  and  decided  against  the 
miners  and  in  favour  of  the  government,  who  resumed  its  manage- 
ment of  the  mines.  In  spite  of  this,  the  miners  continued  to  preserve 
their  disobedient  attitude  until  1846,  when  the  government,  wearied 
with  the  contest,  favoured  the  passage  of  an  Act  of  Congress,  whick 
in  that  year  threw  open  the  mineral  lands  to  private  purchase.  Th.is 
completed  the  triumph  of  the  miners.^ 

In  March,  1847,  the  copper  lands  in  the  Chippeway  tract,  which 
had  been  leased  since  1842  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  were  likewise 
thrown  open  to  purchase,  and  the  system  of  leasing  the  lead  and  cop- 
per mines  by  the  Federal  government  virtually  came  to  an  end. 

'  Mr.  James  C.  Welling,  in  his  Essay  on  the  "  States-rights  Conflict  over  the  Public 
Lands,"  in  the  Am.  Hist.  Ass'n  Papers,  vol.  iii,  pp.  167-1S3,  cited  by  Virtue. 


CONCLLSION.  461 

V.'hcn  tlie  discoveries  of  ^old  were  made  in  California,  Mr.  ICwing, 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  favoured  leasing  the  placers  and  selling  the 
ijuartz  mines,  reserving  as  to  the  latter  a  share  of  the  produce.  In 
1850,  Mr.  Kwing,  having  nieanwhile  gone  tt)  the  Senate,  proposed  that 
all  the  mines  should  be  obliged  to  sell  their  gold  to  the  government 
at  §16  an  ounce,  the  coinage  value  being  §20.67.  This  plan  was  op- 
posed by  Senators  Benton  and  Fremont,  his  son-in-law  ;  so  that  nothing 
was  done  beyond  the  passage  of  aa  Act  charging  a  nominal  fee  for 
the  right  to  mine.  The  Presitlent  in  his  Annual  Message,  said  he 
was  at  first  inclined  to  favour  the  system  of  leasing;  but  bearing  in 
minil  the  experience  of  the  government  with  the  lead  and  copper 
mines,  he  hail  concluded  to  recommend  the  sale  of  the  California 
mineral  lands,  under  certain  restrictions.  These  views  were  carried 
out  by  the  Acts  of  1866,  1870,  and  1872,  and  so  the  matter  has  re- 
mained to  the  present  day. 

Umler  these  circumstances  there  was  nothing  to  stop  tlie  silver 
miner  from  becoming  a  gold  miner,  and  in  fact  he  has  become  one. 
The  legislation  of  1873  drove  him  to  seek  the  yellow  metal  instead 
of  the  white,  and  witli  so  much  energy  has  he  prosecuted  the  search, 
that  he  now  produces  more  gold  (in  value)  than  he  previously  pro- 
duced of  goUl  and  silver  together.  Not  only  this,  but  the  discovery 
of  new  gold  placers  and  low  grade  quartz  deposites  in  Colorado, 
California,  Alaska  and  other  States  and  Territories,  has  greatly  aug- 
mented the  number  of  miners  and  vastly  increased  the  produce  of 
gold:  not  a  dollar  of  which,  though  nearly  all  of  it  is  produced  from 
the  public  lands,  yields  any  revenue  to  the  government. 

Worse  than  all  is  the  uncertainty  of  the  produce.  In  the  absence 
of  a  statistical  ta.x  the  officers  of  the  government  are  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  "estimating"  the  produce,  and  when  it  is  remembered 
that  these  estimates  find  their  way  into  the  sober  accounts  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  who  publish-es  a  monthly  official  statement  of 
the  gold  which  is  supposed  to  be  in  the  country,  forming  a  part  of 
the  "circulation,"  the  necessity  of  obtaining  correct  information  on 
the  subject  appears  more  and  more  urgent. 

Thete  is  yet  another  consideration  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  this  cnn- 
'nection.  The  acquisition  of  the  precious  metals  by  means  of  con- 
quest is  virtually  over.  There  are  no  States  possessing  any  large 
quantities  of  the  precious  metals,  which  are  so  weak  as  to  be  exposed 
to  rapine.  Gunpowiler  anil  arms  of  precision  have  imparted  strength 
enough  to  the  weakest  to  resist  the  invader,  while  the  substitution  of 
paper  money  has  removed  the  chief  object  of  pillaging  expeditions. 


462  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

Slave  mining  is  also  virtually  defunct.  The  systems  of  contract- 
labour,  which  still  lingers  in  the  British  dependencies,  cannot  much 
longer  continue  to  defy  that  detestation  of  slavery  and  resolution, 
to  stamp  out  which  has  long  characterised  the  public  policy  of  Great 
Britain.  The  facts  in  the  case  need  only  to  be  brought  home  to  the 
British  public  to  procure  the  abolition  of  the  system ;  and  such  a  con- 
sumation  cannot  long  be  delayed. 

A  necessary  step  towards  the  preservation  of  free  mining  will  be 
the  more  complete  resumption  of  national  authority  over  the  mines, 
and  this  will  necessarily  lead  to  obligatory  and  more  reliable  returns 
of  production. 

When  slave-mining  and  contract-labour  are  entirely  swept  away 
and  the  precious  metals  needed  for  the  world's  arts  and  coinage  are 
obtained  altogether  from  free  labour,  it  will  not  only  be  regarded  a 
necessary  measure  to  determine  with  precision  the  exact  produce  of 
the  mines,  but  also  how  far,  with  respect  to  the  necessities  of  State 
and  the  taxation  of  other  industries,  such  produce  may  be  required  to 
•contribute  to  the  support  of  government. 

Something  toward  a  consideration  of  these  subjects  is  to  be  dis- 
cerned in  the  pending  movement  to  organize  a  Department  of  Mines 
and  Mining  in  the  government  of  the  United  States.  The  Interna- 
tional Mining  Congress,  which  met  this  year  at  Boise  City,  in  Idaho, 
placed  the  matter  of  erecting  such  a  Department  very  fairly  before 
the  country.  Since  the  year  1866  Congress  has  appropriated  over  a 
million  dollars  for  the  collection  of  mining  statistics  and  the  publica- 
tion of  mineral  reports.  We  have  seen  how  little  it  has  to  show  for 
this  vast  expenditure.  The  erection  of  a  governmental  Mining  De- 
partment can  scarcely  fail  to  direct  such  expenditures  into  a  more 
profitable  channel. 

Glancing  backward  over  the  forty  centuries  which  cover  the  his- 
tory of  the  precious  metals,  a  process  of  evolution  is  to  be  observed 
in  their  employment  as  money,  only  the  more  palpable  features  of 
-which  have  as  yet  arrested  general  attention. 

The  selection  of  gold  from  amongst  a  variety  of  commodities,  as 
the  one  best  fitted  for  a  common  medium  of  barter — the  addition  of 
'Copper,  of  bronze,  of  silver — their  coinage — the  legal  creation  of 
money — the  development  of  Barter  into  Exchange — the  local  acqui- 
:sition  of  the  precious  metals  by  conquest  and  slavery — the  social  and 
political  revolutions  which  ushered  in  the  19th  century — the  general 
introduction  of  paper  money — the  abolition  of  slavery — the  establish- 
jnent  of  free-mining  for  the  precious  metals — the  renunciation  of  full 


CONCLUSION.  463 

legal  tender  copper  money  by  Sweden,  Russia  and  other  States — the 
general  demonetization  of  silver — and  the  establishment  of  mixed 
systems  of  money,  composed  partly  of  paper-notes  and  partly  of  full 
legal  tender  gold  coins  with  subsidiary  coins  of  silver  and  copper — 
these  are  among  the  steps  in  the  evolution  of  Money,  of  which  but 
few  intelligent  persons  can  be  ignorant. 

IJut  behind  all  this  there  has  been  an  evolution  of  Money  far  more 
important  than  that  of  its  substance,  the  evolution  of  its  mobility:  its 
growth  from  a  statical  to  a  dynamical  mechanism,  and  the  concomi- 
tant growth  in  the  methods  of  exchange.  So  far  as  we  are  aware,  this 
phase  of  money  was  first  noticed  by  Locke  in  1691,  and  by  Neclcer  in 
1784;  it  was  alluded  toby  Thornton  and  Mill;  the  subject  was  treated 
at  length  and  the  velocity  of  money  computed  by  the  present  writer 
some  forty  years  ago,  and  recomputed  at  frequent  intervals  since  that 
time;  *  whilst  lately  it  has  received  additional  light  from  the  researches 
of  Mr.  Fawcett  and  M.  des  Essars. 

This  Evolution  of  Money  has  waited  upon  the  establishment  of 
peace  and  justice,  the  development  of  intercourse,  the  application  of 
steam  and  electricity  to  the  means  of  transportation  and  communi- 
cation ;  the  introduction  of  the  cheque  and  clearing-house  systems ;  the 
establishment  of  trading  corporations;  the  rise  of  stock  exchanges; 
and  numerous  other  agencies.  The  general  result  is  that  in  progres- 
sive States,  a  dollar  now  performs,  in  the  same  interval  of  time,  sev- 
eral fold  the  duty  in  facilitating  exchanges  that  it  was  previously 
capable  of  performing;  so  that  Time,  whose  influence  upon  Price  was 
until  recently  imperceptible,  now  clearly  and  unniistakenly  enters 
into  its  composition. 

For  the  sake  of  illustrating  this  view,  let  it  be  supposed  that  steam 
vessels  and  railway  trains  were  suddenly  reduced  to  one-half  their 
present  speed,  and  that  the  telegraphic  service  was  suspended  all  over 
the  world — in  short,  that  the  means  of  intercourse  and  communica- 
tion were  reduced  to  their  condition  some  forty  or  fifty  years  ago. 
Is  it  not  evident  that  the  number  of  dollars  at  present  employed  to 
effect  the  daily  exchanges  of  commerce  would  be  insufficient  for  the 
purpose,  that  for  the  same  number  of  exchanges  more  dollars  would 
be  needed,  and  that  were  more  not  forthcoming  there  would  ensue  a 
stagnation  of  trade  and  a  fall  of  prices,  until  the  reduced  number  and 
amount  of  exchanges,  or  lower  prices,  accommodated  themselves  to 
the  sum  of  the  slower  moving  currency  ? 

Look  at  France,  where  the  cheque  system  has  not  l)een  fully  de- 
*  Del  Mar's  "Science  of  Money,"  chap.  xiv. 


464 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIO.US    METALS 


veloped  and  observe  how  much  more  money  per  capita  she  requires 
and  is  obliged  to  retain  in  circulation,  in  order  to  effect  her  exchanges, 
than  does  England, a  neighbouring  State,  with  a  similar  level  of  prices, 
an  extended  trade  and  very  many  more  exchanges.  Observe  the 
lower  level  of  prices  that  prevail  in  Spain,  in  Italy,  in  Turkey,  where 
intercommunication  is  but  partially  developed,  or  in  India,  where  it 
is  scarcely  developed  at  all. 

These  illustrations  serve  to  indicate  what  financial  science  has  long^ 
observed  and  pointed  out:  that  Money,  no  matter  of  what  substance 
it  is  made,  is  everywhere  growing  in  effectivenesss,  because  it  is  in- 
creasing in  velocity,  or  in  frequency  of  use  and  re-use. 

This,  then,  is  the  reply  to  all  pessimistic  reflections  concerning  the 
Demonetisation  of  Silver :  it  was  a  mistake,  but  one  that  time  and  the 
harmonies  of  political  economy  have  rectified.  It  would  be  a  still 
greater  mistake  to  undo  it:  for  those  who  lost  by  it  would  not  be  the 
same  persons  who  would  gain  by  remonetisation.  There  was  a  time 
and  that  but  recently,  when  it  was  worth  while  to  save  the  silver 
mines,  the  silver  States  and  the  silver  interests  of  our  country.  It  is. 
now  too  late.  The  silver  miners  have  become  gold  miners.  The  silver 
States  are  now  gold  States;  and  for  weal  or  for  woe  the  country  is. 
unmistakenly  committed  to  the  policy  of  basing  its  exchanges  upon  a 
monetary  system  whose  metallic  basis  is  substantially  gold  coins  only. 


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HISTORV    OF    THE    PRKCIOUS    METALS. 


467 


iXDICX 


Abdelmumen,  caliph,  his  opulence  132 
Abdurahman,  caliph,  his  opulence  132 
Abruilbanya,  mines  nf  Hunjjary  122 
Acapulco,  txpcd.  to  the  Cjolden  Isle,  408 
Accidents  in  mines.     See  Mining  Cans 
/Es  (bronze)  8.     See  also  Copper 
Africa,    conquest,    5  ;    ancient    voyages 
around,  272;  Koman  expedition  to  the 
Soudan  2S0;  plunder  of  272;  mines  of 
Central  2S2;   produce  of  Sofala    293. 
See  also  Transx'aal 
African  slave  trade.     .See  Slavery 
Agatharcides,  De  Mari  Kubro,  cited,  39, 

277- 
Agricola,  proconsul  in  ISritain,  mines  loS 
Agriculture  necessary  to  mines,  363 
Akbar,  (.Irand  Mogul,  his  revenues  339 
Alaska,  5,  435,  produce  441 
Albuquerque,     Portuguese    Commander, 

36,  2</J,  323,  34S 
Alexander  the  Creat.  14.  31,  S6,  95,  316, 

374-     App.  S. 
Al-hakem    II.,  caliph   of  Cordova,  gold 

mines  132 
Almaden  mines  of  Spain,  71,  122,  360 
Almagro,  Diego  de,  his  crimes,  170;  il- 
literacy 192;  quarrels  with  I'izarro  194, 
196,  19S;  his  son  204 
Alonzo,  Juan,  his  treachery  161 
Alps,  mines  in  the,  121 
Altai  mines  of  Siberia,  38,  3S2-3 
Alvarado,  Pedrode,  172;  patrols  and  rav- 
ages Mexico  177,  1S4;  CiUatemala  189; 
cruelties  190;  extortions  191;  joins  Piz- 
arro  in   Peru  191,  210;  deathbed  and 
mock  repentance  191 
Amalgamation   with  mercury  7;  its  his- 
tory 134;  the  patio  process  134 
Amazons,  fabled,  of  El  Dorado  i;i 
Amber  in  the  IlalUtadt  sepulchres  13 
Amboyna  expels  the  Portuguese  325 
America, its  conquest  a  great  tragedy,  i6g. 
177,  180.  1 85,  199,  220.  236;  character 
of  the  natives  141,  156 
Americo  Vespucci  discovers  Brazil  231 
Amur  river  mines,  of  Siberia.  y^U 
Ancient  symbols  still  in  use.  103 
.Vndngoya,  Pascual  de  l<)2 
Anderson's  Hist.  Commerce  cited  214-16 
Appalache.  a  city  filled  with  gold  263 


Appalachian  mines,  153,  266,    3f)S;  pro- 
duce 371 
Aquirrc,  I. ope  de,  monster  of  cruelty,  152 
Arabian  authors,  40,  2<x>,  2lS,  2S1,  323 
Arabian  empire  of  IJaghdad,  2S0;  Empire 
in  .Spain,  121,  120,  132,  232;  coiiqut-st 
of    Africa   280;  mines  of    Sofala  2^9; 
plunder  of  Asia  317;  relics  in  .Siberia 

379 
Arabians  alluded  to  as  Phoenicians  27S 
Arabians  of  .Spain  121,  126,  132,  232 
Arbitrage  359 

Arbitration,  international,  Roman  98 
Argentine  Republic.      See  Buenos  Ayres 
Argonauts  .\ncient  376;  California  21 
Aristotle  cited,  50,  19S,  394 
Ark.  Hacchic  legend  of  the  mercury  box  8 
Arrian,  his  "  Periplus"  cited  23,  27S 
Arrowheads,   gold,    Peru  197;   Australia 

418,  422 
Arts,  consumption  of  p.  m.  in  the,  449-50 
Arucanians, their  aversion  to  gold-mining 
212;  hatred  of   .Spaniards  212;  religion 
211;  bravery  2io;  independence  212 
Asia,  plunder  of,  315;  estimated  at  over 
1. 000  millions  348;  production  389,431 ; 
constmiption  450;   stock  456;  popula- 
tion 456 
Assignats  and  Mandats  of  revolutionary 

France  3f)0 
Atahualpa,  Inca  of  Peru  197:  Ransom  199 
Augustus,   sov.-pont.   of   Rome,   81,  84, 

135.  175.  277.  279 
Auranzib,  Grand  Mogul  of  India  339 
Auri  sacra  fames,  or  thirst  for  gold  63,65, 

67.  95.  445 
Australasia,  disc,  of  the  placers  416;  rush 
of    miners  41b;    produce  417;   mining 
chronology  423 
Austria,  ancient  salt  mines  and  sepulchres 

of  Salzburg  12 
Ayolas.  Juan  de,  pillages  Peru  217 
Ayora,  Juan  de,his  infamous  cruelties  166 
.Aztecs  and  Toltecs  antiquities  236;  reli- 
gion 304 

Iladajoz  leads  a  gold  expedition  tbS 
lialbao,  Vasco  Nui^ezde.  ibi;  his  fiendish 
cruelties    162.    Ifx^;  attempts   to  reach 
Peru  163;  executed  by  Pedrarias  170 


468 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


Ballarat,  Victoria,  gold-diggings  disc. 416 
Bank  of  Austria  stops  payment  390 
Bank  of  England  stops  payment  390 
Bank   notes    above    par  in  gold  235;  in 

Australian  mining  camps  420 
Banks  and  Bankers  105,  136,  234-5,  360, 

367.  390 
Barreto's  gold  expedition  to  Sofala  291 
Bars  of  bullion  can  only  be  used  as  money 

when  valued  in  money  250 
Barter  and  excliange  contrasted  462 
Bastiat,  Frederick,  polit.  econ.  cited  394 
Baug,  ring  or  loop  money  13,  30,  35 
Bebulo,  silver  mine  in  Carthag.  Spain  65 
Becerra,  his  gold-hunting  cruelties  168 
Bengal  5;  acquired  by  the  British  342-3 
Berezovsk  Siberia,  gold  mines  37S,  3S1 
Bernard, Sam'l, banker, stops  payment  234 
Bills  of  Exchange  137 
Bingo,  converted  daimio  of  Japan  304 
Bisharee  gold  mines  of  ancient  Egypt  32 
Bolivia,  222,  22S 
Bombay  sold  by  Charles  II.  331 
Bonanza  and  boya.  mining  terms  203 
Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  loS,  361 
Booming  apparatus  for  gold  mines  64,  78 
Botero,  Giovani,  cited  202 
Brazil  23S;  disc. of  gold  239;  chron. of  min- 
ing 246;  population  252:  produce  254 
Britain  as  a  mining  country,  9,  64,  107; 
Roman  moneys  109;  mints  no;  public 
works  in;  exploitation  112;  mines  114; 
mining  laws  115 
British  Columbia  gold  mines  425;  427 
Bronze  Age,  relics  of  the,  in  Salzburg  12 
Buddha,  institutes  forbidding  use  of  prec. 

met  13,  124,  452;  relics  of,  380 
Buddhism,  6,  10,  il,  14,  iS 
Buenos  Ayres,  217;  metallic  poverty  236; 

produce  227 
Bulls,  Papal,  disposing  of  America  23S; 

Africa,  283;  Asia  322;  the  Earth  198 
Bullion  employed  as  money  243,  250 
Buningyong,  Victoria,  gold  diggings  416 
Burma,  plunder  of,  by  the  British  337 
Burton,  Sir  Richard,  cited  280 
Byzantium,  numerary  money  of,  135 

Cabot,  John,  Venetian  navigator  261 
Cabral,  Pedro  Alvarez,  Portuguese  navi- 
gator, 23  S 
Cacao  and  capsicum  beans  for  money  206 
Cada  Mosto,  Venetian  navigator  281,288 
Caesar,   Julius,   sov.-pont.,  Rome,  5,  81, 

96,  106,  123,  135 
Calendars  97,  277,  310,  450- 
California,  9.  397;  before  the  Discovery 
398;  thd  Discovery  415;  richest  mining- 
country  in  the  world  433 ;  mining  handi- 
capped by  "  C'^ntract-labour  "  in  Brit- 
ish dependencies  434;   annual  produce 


since  1848  400;  chronology  of  gold  407; 
statistical  tax  proposed  461 
Callao  gold  mine  of  Venezuela  160 
Capital,  a  necessity  for  vein  mines  365 
Canal  locks,  ancient  Roman  99 
Cancrin,  Count,  Russian  financier  392 
Carat,  ambiguous  use  of  the  term  231 
Carausius,  usurping  Emp.  of  Britain  no 
Carteia.  Roman  city  in  Spain  66 
Carthage,  ancient  Empire  62,  65 
Casamarca,  ancient  city  of  Peru  197 
Casas  de  Fundicion.     (Smelting  and  re- 
fining houses)  169,  249 
Cas,  cass,   cash,  caseph,  chuen.  Oriental 

terms  for  money  310 
Cassiar  gold  district,  Br.  Columbia  436 
Casiterides,  tin  islands  (Britain)  64 
Cathedrals  of  Europe,  when  built  126 
Caving  of  mines.     See  Mining  Caves 
Census  of  Cordova  132;  Peru  199;  Para- 
guay 225;  China  457 
Cephala,  gold  mines.    See  Sofala 
Cerro  de  Pasco  silver  mines  of  Peru  203 
Ceylon  plundered  by  the  Dutch  328 
Charlemagne,  emp.  Germany  127 
Charles  I.,  of  Spain,  and  V.,  of  Ger.  159 
Charles  II.  of  England  and  the  Chilean 
mines  215;  seizes  gold  mines  of  Guinea 
284;  sells  Bombay  331 
Charles  VI.  of  Germany  vainly  charters  a 

corporation   333 
Cheque  System  457,  463-4 
Chevalier's  "  Fall  of  Gold  "  389,  393,  449 
Child,  Sir  Josiah,  332,  340 
Chile,  plundered  209;  produce  216 
China,  coins  of,  6;  moneys  206,  348,  451; 
plundered  by  Europeans  133,  348,  350, 
352;  Ming  notes  34S;  Opium  war  349; 
miningpolicy  392;stockof  p.m. 451, 456 
Chiriqui,  huacas  (graves)  plundered    1S6 
Chisel  shaped  coins  of  tin  and  bronze  206 
Chronology  11,  26,  38,  277 
Chryse  and  Argyre  15 
Churches  of  Paris,  when  built,  126 
Cibola,  the  Seven  Cities  of,  259,  266 
Cinnabar  (the  ore  of  mercury)  47,  63 
Clive,  Robert,  Lord,  his  depredations  5, 

334-5.  341 
Coal  mines,  Roman  and  medieval  iiS 
Cobden's  gold  fright  389,  390,  449 
Code  of  Procedure,  Roman  97 
Coinage,  origin  of  6,  25;  progress  of  10, 

12,  88, 135;  prerogative 233;  individual 

or    "free"    (gratuitous)   135,231-2-3, 

454-5;  intricacies  of  359;   cost  of  369; 

Alexican  180;  Brazilian  258 
Coins,  gold   26;  copper   5,  8,  9,  26,  120, 

213;  silver  14.  25:  tin  206;  iron  50,52; 

clipped  136;  counterfeit  136,  230,  232; 

debased  136,  233,  335;   degraded    136; 

overvalued  no,  232,  251,  374;  cost  of 


HISTORY    OK    THK    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


469 


fabricating  369;  inferior  value  of  bul- 
lion 251;  bron/e,  used  as  aninuinition 
33i>;  ^old  31S;  lliiulu  rania-tankahs  10; 
Chinese  bell  tnins  6;  shoos  2u();  Per- 
sian darics  2();  Mexican  siccapilli  2o(>\ 
Cireek  coins  44-5;  Spanish  in  I5I(),22S; 
Japanese  302;  Kuropean  stock  366; 
stock  in  various  countries  456;  scarcity 
in  early  Australia  420 
Columbus,  Christopher,  5,  137,  14(3,  143, 

145.  155.  303 
Colorado,  discoveries  of  gold  in,  461 
Coniniendatio,  feudal  institution  117,210 
Commerce  promoted  by  money  5,  85 
Comogre,  cacique,  his  son,  162 
Comstock  mines  of  Nevada  9,  202,  363, 

401,  403 
Congo  Free   State   300;  slavery,  torture 

and  massacre  of  natives  301 
Conquest  and  slavery  as  sources  of  gold 

5,  461.     See  also  S/ai'^rv 
Consumption  of  the  precious  metals  </.;'. 
Constantinople,  Fall  of  in  A.  I).  1204,  its 

influence  on  mining  123. 
Convoys  of  plate-ships.     See  /'/aft-  S/ii/<s 

and  Ifahtria 
Copper,  5,  8,  9,  26,  120,  213;  Japan  310; 
India  8,  used  as  shot  339;  China"cash" 
S,  322,  452;  in  Peru  valued  above  goKl 
197;  mines  of  Chippeway  Tract  460; 
coins  of  Russia  and  Sweden  463 
Corea,    mining    interdict    14;  plundered 

309-10.  319 
Corn    rents   and    payments    China    457; 
Japan  305;  Siam  451 ;  proposed  by  Cob- 
den  for  England  390 
Coronado,  Francisco  Vasquez  de.exped.to 
the  Seven  (golden) Cities  of  Cibola  408 
Cornwall,  mines  of,  112,  365 
Cornwallis.  (Jen.,  surrender  at  Yorktown 

343;  career  in  India  345 
Corporations  87,  98,  333 
Corsairs  183,  239.  269,  303-4,  326.  34S 
Cortes,  Hernando,  5,  138;  invades  Slex- 
ico   171;  claims  its  lonlship  174.    1S3; 
discovers  California  398,  407;  his  death 
1S5 
Cost  of  Prec.  Mets.  S3,  169,  iSo,226,23(), 

253,  427.44"* 
Cost  of    Production  theory  S3,  236,  253, 

326,  448.  452 
Covos,  a  Spanish  mint  charge  230 
Crcilit,  development  of,  105,  458 
Credits  and  money,  velocity  of.  45S 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  and  mines  of  Chile  214 
Crozat.  Antoine,  purchases  Louisiana  459 
Cruelties  committed  for  gold,4o,6(>-7,79, 

iW),  201.  324,  34() 
Crusades  ag.iinst  Moslem  .Spain  129 
Cuba,  loS,  140,  171,  2(>4 
Currency.    See  Money 


Curtius  Rufus  discovers  a  silver  mine  120 
Cu/co,  temple  of,  plundered  209 
Cyprus,  its  tin  mines  9 
Cyrus,  King  of  Persia  315 

Dana.  Prof.  J.  D.,  cited  39S,  414 

Danson,  .Mr.,  cited  447 

l)ard;e,  an  ancient  people  of   India  15 

l)aric,goid  coin  of  Persia,  29 

1  >arien  i)hm(iered  by  Spaniards  \U\ 

Karius  llystas|)es,  K.of  Persia  29.39,315 

h.irro.  auriferous  river  in  .Spain  123 

1  )ecayeil  mining  districts  386 

l>e  (iama,  rounds  the  Cape  288,  348 

l)elhi  pluddered  320-1,  341 

Del  Mar,  .Manuel,  cited  201 

Demidof,  .\kinli    Nikitich,  Russian  mine 

prt)prietor  37^),  3S0 
Demonetisation  of  gold  \.  D.  1850.  38<> 
Demonetisation   of  silver  .\.  I).  1870-3, 

4(^)1,  464;  intrigues  of  Wilson  and  Fre- 

mantle  388 
Depopulation  of  .\boriginal  .\merica  159, 

180,    199,    201,    22(J. 

Derby,  Peak  of,  ancient  mining  laws,  115 
Derechos,  or  mining  imposts,  230 
Deshima,  a  port  of  Japan  308 
De  Soto,  Hernando  or  Fernando  138,197, 

263 
Devastation,  physical,  caused   by  mininjj 

.33.  35.  43.  5*.  O7,  386 
Diaz,  Hernal,  cited  173,  190 
Disafforestation  caused  by  mining  32, 34-5, 

43S.  442-3 
L)itches,  mining,  in    Egypt   43;  Italy  54; 

.Spain  7(1;  Itrazil  43 
Dogs  employed    to    hunt    down    mining 

slaves  107-8-9,  218,  239 
Dollar,  its   origin   in   the    Roman    talent 

113;  Spanish  22S,  American  silver  400; 

gold  430,  434,  453 
r)ore  or  electrum  mines.     See  Comstock 
Douro.  auriferous  river  in  .Spain  63.  123 
Drake,  .^ir  Francis.  147.  398;  worsl)ip|)ed 

as  a    Messiah    409;   suspects   gold   in 

California  4119 
Drama,  progress  of  the  Roman  106 
Ducrna,  auriferous  river  in  Spain  G3 
Dutch,      "^li^  Hollanders. 

F.arthquakes  in  mining  countries  363 
Economical  principles  deduced  from  his- 
tory:    See    ('<>.</  of   /'roiiuctioii ;    l-'ice 
ininint^    liithcrlo    unprifitahU- ;     Wtlue 
is  a  rilation,  not  an  attribute;  Time  is 
an  clement  0/  J' rice  :  I  'elocity  of  Money. 
Eflicicncy  of  money  and  credits  458 
Egypt,  gold  mines.  32;  chronology  11,12 
Ekalherinsburg  gold  mines  381 
Elbe,  auriferous  river  in  (icrmany.  122-3 
El  Df>rado,  legends  of  and   searches  for 
149,158 


470 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


Electrum  or  dore  mines  311 

Elephants'  remains  found  in  Siberia  385 

Emigration  voluntary,  promoted  by  dis- 
coveries of  free  mines  399,410,414-5-6, 
419,  439,  444 

Emigration,  forcible,  in  South  Africa  297 

Eminent  domain  of  mines.  See  Preroga- 
tive 

Enciso,  Gov.  of  Darien,  his  cruelty  161 

Encomienda  (Repartimiento),an  award  of 
Indian  vassals  (slaves),  its  Roman  ori- 
gin 200;  Candia,  13th  cen.  200;  Spain, 
14th  cent.  200;  introduced  in  America 
by  Columbus  1496  143;  Cortes  1S4; 
Pizarro  197;  Almagro  211;  La  Plata 
218;  Brazil  243;  generally  108,117,138 

England, detestation  of  slavery42g-30,433 

England,  Bank  of,  q.  v. 

Ergasteria,  near  Laurium,  q.  v. 

Espinosa,  his  murderous  cruelties  168 

Estrada,  Alonzo  de,  Gov.  New  Spain  185 

Etruscan  gold  coins  54 

Eudoxus  of  Cnidus  277;  of  Cyzicus  277 

Europe,  stock  of  coins  and  bullion  366 

Evolution  of  money  462 

E.Kchanges,  world's,  rest  on  gold  394 

Exchanges  facilitated  by  money  463;  their 
development  impossible  without  it  394 

Exchanges,  velocity  of,  463 

Famines,    America   143;  India    20,  335; 

China  35S 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  141,  146,  156 
Feudalism, marks  of,  82;  Mexico  189,304; 
Peru  304;  France  360-1;  Japan  304-5 
Feudalism,  its  relation  to  money  360 
Firearms  unknown  in  Mexico  or  Peru  304 
Florida  (meaning  all  of  N.  America)262-3 
Flow  of  prec.  met.  to  Orient  449;  to  Oc- 
cident 333;  toward  lower  prices  258,333 
Fountain  of  Youth  in  the  Lucayas  262 
France,  its  mines,  ancient  and  modern  79 
Free  coinage.  See  Gratuitous  and  Indivi- 

■  dual 
Free  mining,  origin    367;    promoted  by 
French  and  Span. -Am.  revolutions  367; 
cost  of  430;  hitherto  unprofitable  367, 
427,  430.  443      .       . 
Freedom,  Roman  institutes  of  96 
Fremantle,  Charles,  and  the  Lilver  legis- 
lation of  1870,  388 
French  Corsairs.     See  Corsairs 
French  Revolution,     '^ee  devolutions 
Frogs  found  alive  in  mines  121 
Fundicion.     See  Casas  de 

Garcia,  Alexis,  pillages  Alto  Peru  217 
Gargarin,  Prince,  Gov.  of  Siberia  380 
Garonne, auriferous  river  in  France  80,123 
Gaul,  gold  and  silver  mines  of  79 
Genghis  Khan, Mongol  emp.  318,380,383 
Gentes  coins  and  mines  of  Rome  107, 135 


Geologists  and  prospectors  436 

Getae,  or  Goths  13 

Gibbon  cited  86,  120,  2S8,  310 

Gilbert,    Sir    Humphrey,    expedition  to 

Nova  Scotia  270 
Gmelin,  John  George,  cited  316 
Gold  furnished  by  nature  ready  for  use  5; 
earliest  of  metals  6,  7;  not  highly  es- 
teemed by  native  races  197,  276;  used 
for  arrow-heads  197,  418,  422;  armour 
197;  copper  and  glass  valued  higher  in 
Peru  197;  native  aversion  to  search  for 
287,  423;  interdict  of  290;  sacred  13,17, 
83,  23o,3i2;cost  of  336,341,347;  Plun- 
der c].v.;  the  pioneer  of  civilization  5. 
53;  basis  of  the  world's  exchanges  464; 
sold  for  less  than  mint  price  35-6,  444; 
robbed  from  Graves  g.  v. ;  mines  of 
Rome  ownedby  the  State  67;T.axes^.z'. ; 
monetary  system  of  Rome  108;  peculiar 
to  the  pagan  hierarchy  120;  mining  dur- 
ing Middle  Ages  1 19;  first  word  spoken 
between  Europe  and  America  140; 
craved  by  the  Spaniards  173;  used  as 
ammunition  38; gold fishingi66; golden 
stool  of  Ashanti  2S3;  production,  con- 
sumption and  stock  456;  panic  of  1837 
384;  1850-7  389;  demonetised  389; 
Russian  "mania"  389;  Siberian  gold 
stealing  395;  value  of  not  due  to  Cost 
of  Production  q.v. 
Golden  Isle,  exped.  to  discover  the,  408 
Gongen  (lyeyasu)  shogun  of  Japan  306 
Gratuitous  coinage  369,  454-6.      See  also 

Coinage 
Graves   plundered   81,  96,  138,  152,  184, 
1S6,  187,  205,  212,316,322,374,379,451 
Greece,    halcyon  age,   App.    i;    eminent 
Greeks  of  Solonic  period,^//.  3;  Alex- 
andrian period,  App.  7 
Gresham's  so-called  law  of  money  235 
Griffis'  "  Mikado's  Empire."  306-7-8 
Grijalva,  Juan  de,  his  misdeeds  172 
Guacanagari,  cacique,  his  hospitalit}-  140 
Guadalquiver,  aurif.  river  in  Spain,  6,  62, 

67.  74.  123 
Guarani  Indians  of  Pa  Plata  221 
Guarionex,  cacique,  his  strange  offer  143 
c;uiana,gold  expeditions  151,154,157,159 
tiuilds,  ancient  and  medieval  S7,  98,  333 
Guinea,  goldmines  282:  produce  286 
Guatemala  ravaged  by  the  Spaniards  189 

Haberia,  or  convoy  duty  254 
Hakem.     Set  Alhahem 
Hakluyt's  "  Voyages,"  cited  39S 
Halcvon  ages  of  Greece,  App.  g:   Rome 

87.'  96 
Ilamilcar  Barca,  Carthaginian  general  65 
Hannibal,  Carthaginian  general  66,  87 
Hargreaves    discovers   gold    in  Australia 

419,  424 


HISTORY    OK    THK    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


471 


Hartz  mountains,  silver  mines  of  the,  122 

Ilastinjjs,  Marquis  of.  5,  343 

Hulucy  exhibits  the  wiiite  nuin's  god  145 

Hawkins,  Sir  John,  in  the  slave  trade  283; 
Floriiia  268;  California  3(>S 

Helps,  Sir  Arthur,  cited.  139,  173.  1S3, 
201,  211 

Henry  II.  of  England  at  Beaucaire  130. 

V  111.  dredges  the  harbours  of  Corn- 
wall 112 

Heretical  and  unlawful  mining  121 

Herodotus,  cited,  14,  28,  43-4,  95,  112, 
22S,  37«> 

Hidalgo, Miguel, leader  Sp.-Am.Rev.,362 

Himalayas,  gold  mihe,  15,  38 

Hispai\ola,  gold  forays  in,  140 

Hoards  of  the  precious  metals, Peru  205; 
Europe  437 

Hollanil.  gratuitous  coinage  231;  demon- 
etisation of  gold  3S9 

Hollanders  trade  with  Japan  307-S;  plun- 
der the  East;  326  coast  of  .\frica  2S3; 
attempt  Chile  214;  coinage  law  231 

Holy  Koman  Empire  333 

Honduras  plundered  of  gold  187 

Horses  unknown  in  America  173-4-5. 
1 96-7;  yet  depicted  in  Aztec  books  175; 
common  in  Japan  305 

Huacas,  pilares  y  tapadas  152 

Huayna  Capac.  Inca  of  Peru  197 

Huguenots,  gold  exped.  of  the.  238,265 

Human  lives,  millions  of,  sacrificed  for 
gold,  159,  iSo,  199,  201,  220,  319 

Humboldt,  liaron  Alex,  von,  137,  159, 
17S.205.  244.  255.  370,  374.  376,  3S2-3 

Hungarians,  a  Finnish  race  3S0 

Hungary,  mines  of.  122 

Huns  of  Tartary  317.  380 

Hurtado,  his  slave-hunting  exped.  167 

Hyder  Aii,  Nawab  of  Mysore  344 

Iberian  peninsular,  mines  of  the,  61,  71 

les  Chrishna,  ancient  Indian  Deity  8,  II 

Incas  of  Peru  197,  K/;,  205 

India,  gold  mines  17,  345;  silver  mines 
345;  ancient  coins  10;  scarcityof  silver 
II,  13,  14;  ratio  I2u;  the  Moslems 
change  the  currency  from  copper  to 
billon  320;  the  P.riti>h,  from  biilon  to 
silver  335.  370;  plunder  of  335.  337-S; 
trade  with  97;  flow  of  prec.mct.to,  449; 
consumption  in  the  arts,  450;  produce 
iS,  447;  st<K-k  on  hand  451,  456;  paper 
money  453;  absence  of  checjue  system 
4(14;  Mysore  mines  327,  429;  mine- 
slavery  17.  iS.  429;  pitiable  poverty  of 
the  rvots  19,  336 

Indians,  .American,  conquered  176,  197; 
plundered  226;  enslaved  143,  184;  cir- 
culated as  living  money  147;  worked  to 
death  in  mines  146;  revolution  213.359, 


362;  freedom,  367;  peonage  367;  arch- 
aeological remains  of  the  1S7 
Individual  coinage  ("  free  coinage  ")  401 
Intrigues  for  monetary  legislation  388 
Inventions,  progress  of  100 
Iron  9,  II.  21.  20,  ()2,  117,  179 
Italy,  mines  54;  produce  60 

Jacob,   "Hist.  Prec.  Metals"  cited   119, 

253.  3<'<' 

Jacotinga  ores  of  Prazil  241 

Japan  discovered  137,138,  compared  with 
Mexico  304;  its  stock  of  prec.  met.  ab- 
stracted and  exported  to  Europe  302; 
alarm  of  the  natives  307;  expulsion  of 
Europeans  307;  coins  302,309-10;  ratio 
310;  former  produce  302;  alluvions  30^; 
quartz  mines  310;  recent  produce  313 

Jason  and  the  Argonauts,  376 

Jehangir,  Clrand  Mogul,  331 

Jesuit  Missions  of  Paraguay  220 

Jovian  cycle  of  time  6 

Justinian,  Emp.  Kome  27,  115 

Khan,  or  Chan,  and  its  derivatives  16 
Klomlike  placers  discovered  439;  wages 

443;  taxes  441;  produce  441 
Kohinoor  diamonii  captured  in  India  322 
Kolvvan  silver  mines  of  Siberia  3S0 
Korumba  slaves  worked  by  the  British  I9. 

420.  448 
Kublai  Khan,  Emp.  China  319 

Lakes,  sacred,  of  Toulouse  So;  Guatavita 

149;  Mexico  So,  I'h 
I, a  Plata,  province.     See  Buttios  Ayrfs 
l.as  Casas,  Father,  157,  200,  212 
Las  Medulas.     See  Mtdtilas 
Lauriuni,  ancient  mines  of  Greece  44,  63 
Law,  John  of  I.auriston  233.  459 
Laws  of  Mining.  .Mints  and  Money  q.v. 
Lawyers  forbidden  iii  Span. -.America  183 
Lay  and   laymen.   Alaska    mining  terms 

439.  442 
Lead  1 14;  Missouri  460;  Hubuque  440 
Leather  moneys  of  medieval  Europe  137 
Leon,  Ponce  tie.  Gov.  i>f  New  Spain  184 
Leon,  Ponce  dc,  Gov.  of  Porto  Kico  262 
Liber  Pater  (Bacchus)  96 
Li  Hung  Chang,  Chinese  statesman  357 
Lima,  Peru.    Its  population  degraded  by 

the  mine  slavery  formerly  established 

by  the  Spaniards  208 
Literature   during  the  Halcyon  days  of 

kome  iof> 
Living  money.    See  Indians,  American 
Livingstone,  David.  Kev.,  cited  276,294 
Livy's  ••  Hist.  Kome,"  cited  24,  26,  88, 

99, 100 
Lobenguela,  Chief  of  the  Zulus  173 
Lock. on  "  Gold,"  cited  276,  292,303,320, 

375 


472 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


Locke,  John,  cited  on  Money  463 
Lonira,  sad  story  of  aGuarani  mother  244 
London,  origin  of  the  name  112 
Louis  XIV,  of  France,  his  finances  233 
Louisiana  as  a  province  of  France  459 
Lubbock,  Sir  John,  cited  12,  458 

Maha-bharata,  epic,  The,  cited  6,  13 
Mahmoudof  Gazni, plunders  India  317-18 
Mahometan  religion, causes  of  decay  127 
Malabar,  mine  slavery  18,  19,  429,  448 
Malacca  plundered  323-4-5,  328,  348-9 
Malte-Brun,  26,  122,  199,  275,  276,  382 
Mamelucos,  bandits  of  San  Paulo  221 
Manetho's  delusive  chronology  ii 
Manilla  plundered  302,  349,  408 
Mantchuria,  placer  mines  387 
Manu,  Hindu  code  of,  6 
Maravedi,  Spanish  coin,  228,  231 
Marco  Polo,  travels  in  China,  137,303,312 
Margarita  (Isle  of  Pearls)  156 
Mark  weight  of  Castile  250 
Marina,  Aztec  mistress  of  Cortes  173,  184 
Marrying  the  Sea  22,  49 
Marshall, Tom, discovers  gold  in  Calif  .41 5 
Massacres  for  gold  95,  177,  190,  349,  352, 

420,  421 
Massagetse,  Scythian  tribe  13 
Matto  Grosso  gold  mines  24S-9 
Measure  of  Value  85,  136,  205.  457 
Medina  discovers  the  patio  process  180 
Medina,  Edict  of.     See  Ratio  of  Value 
Medulas,  Las,  gold  mines  in    Spain   73, 

99,  102 
Meer,  a  Roman  and  English  mine  mea- 
sure 116 
Mercury,  8,  63,  122,  125,  360 
Messiah,  American  belief  in  a,  95,  175, 

210,  270,  304 
Metals.    ^eQ  Precioiis  Metals 
Mexico,  invaded  by  Cortes,  171;  had  no 
iron  12;  its  easy  conquest  176;  massacre 
of  the  inhabitants  177;  cruelties  of  the 
Spaniards  17S;  mines  179;  slavery  180; 
revolution    362;   closing  of  the  mines 
362;  produce  182,  366 
Middle  Ages,  mining  during  the,  1 19 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  cited  on  Money  463 
Mine  (s)  prospectors  436;  placer, vein  and 
hydraulic    7,    212,   363,    399,  eminent 
domain  of  132;  salted  292;  bubbles  and 
swindles  225-6-7,  256;  slavery  232,333, 
407;  America  433-5,  441;  India  17,345; 
Egypt  32;  Japan  306;  Sumatra  327;  Br. 
India  333;  South  Africa  125,  272  429; 
destruction  of  life  in  the, 159,  180,  199, 
201,  220;  free,  often  worked   at   a  loss 
226;  royal  18;  royalties42i ;  quinto  q.z'. ; 
derechos23o;  covos  232;  wages  287,434 
Miners,  personal   characteristics  of  ill, 
120;  now  mostly  changed  from  gold  to 
silver  mines  461 


Minhas    Geraes,    Brazil  gold  mines  153, 

221,  240 
Minho,  auriferous  river  in  Spain  63,123 
Mining,  a  secret  art   72,  431;  countries, 
their  physical  character  34;  progress  of 
102;  impediments  to  70;  when  free,  has 
been  unprofitable  226;  cost  of  driving 
levels  at  Mysore  430;  forbidden  14,50, 
56;  in  Spain   70;  elsewhere   226,  290; 
restricted  in  Italy  55;  laws  concerning 
114,  115,  125,  228,  367;  taxes  and  other 
exactions  (see  also    Royalties,  Quinto, 
etc.)  256,  390,  420;  arastras  364;  mala- 
cates  364;    buscones  364;  patios  364; 
bonanzas    203;    boyas    203;  lays   439; 
caves  or  break-downs  73,  204,  363,431; 
in   aboriginal    Mexico  179;  Peru  202; 
aversion  to  by  native  races  50,  59,  202, 
204;  fevers  80;  bubbles  and  swindles 
g.v.;  Commissions  116;  policy  of  Rus- 
sia 387,390,  392;  the  United  States  459 
Mint(s),    Rome,    1 10;    Spain    228,    229, 
234;  Holland  231;  Britain  no;  United 
States  loi,  no,  401;  price  of  gold  and 
silver  400,  430,  453;  cost  of  fabricating 
coins    369;    charges    243-5;    (see    also 
Royalties,  Quinto,  de7'echos,  covos,  seig- 
niorages, etc.) 
Mint  Bureau.     See  United  States 
Missionaries  join  plundering  China  355-6 
Mississippi  Bubble  Company, of  Paris 459 
Missouri  lead  mines  460 
Mita,  Span. -Am.  mining  law  108,  220 
Mixt  Moneys,  celebrated  case  of  the,  251 
Monetary  Commissions  105,  403 
Monetary  Congresses,  international,  are 
traps  for  inexperienced  statesmen  38S 
Money,  antiquity  of  10;  origin  25,  Evolu- 
tion 463;  an  institution  of  law  135,314, 
458;   antagonises  slavery  180;    Roman 
money  10,85,107;  British  107;  Spanish 
in    1516   228;    Spanish-American    180. 
232;aboriginal  Mexico  206;  Peru  204-5; 
Brazil  243;  Europe,  1492,  136;  in  min- 
ing camps  420;  bullion  as  250;  metallic 
26;  numerary  94;  paper  79;  human,  or 
live  147;  laws  of  228;  stocks  of  in  vari- 
ous countries   457;   it  promotes  com- 
merce 85;  increase  of  314;  contraction 
of    234;    national    prerogative  of  233; 
control  of  136;    individual  control  of 
135;    a   subject    of  contention  during 
3000  years  462 
Monomotapa,  gold  mines  of  294 
Montezuma,  Enip.  of  Mexico  173,  183 
Moors  expelled  from   Spain  232 
Morales,  revolting  cruelties  of  168 
Motalinia, Father, on  Spanish  cruelties  177 
Mozambique  gold  mines.     See  Sofala 
Mungo  Park  in  Central  Africa  276 
Murchison,  Sir  R.,  geologist,  417-18,  423 


HISTORY    OK    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


473 


Muscat  plundored  125,  324 

Muza  ben  Noseir  overruns  Spain  12S; 
treaty  with   1  hcodomir  12S 

Mysore  gold  mines  17.  18,  19,  327;  sys- 
tem of  "contract-labour,"  or  slavery 
429,  448;  produce  431 

Nadir    Shah,   K.  Persia,  plunders   India 

321.  340 
Naj^ybanya  mines  of  Hungary  122 
Napoleon  108;  Spirit  of  his  Empire  361 
Negro  slavery.     See  Slavery 
Nero's  expedition  to  Central  Africa  279 
Nertchinsk  silver  mines,  of  .Siberia  377 
Netherlands,  gratuitous  coinage  law  231 
Nevatla    mines  400;   statistical  ta.\  401. 

See  also  Co/fis/ocJt 
Nicolas,  tzar  of   Russia,  his  interest  in 

mines  435 
Nicuesa,  Gov.  of  Darien  161 
Nuniisma  =  law  :^  money,  implying  its 

legal  character  135 
North    America  disc,  by    the  Norsemen 

27,  26t;  Cabot  201;  mines  opened  by 

Norsemen   27,  261;   reopened    by    the 

British  270 
No\-gorod    captured    bv    Kuric    372;    by 

John  III.  372;  its  moneys  373 
Nubia  (from  Nub=gold)  S 
Nuggets,  big,  204,  2S3;  3S2,  419.  424 
Numerar)'  moneys  85,  94,  96,  109,  135 

Ojeda,  .-Vlonzode.  Gov. of  Darien  156,161 
Okubo,  Gov.  of  Sado,  Japan,  307 
Olid.  Cristoval  de.  his  assassination  1S4 
Opium  war.  Great  Britain  and  China  349 
Opulence,  barbaric  displays  of,  80.  130 
Orient,  plunder  of  315;  flow  of  precious 

metals  to  the.  449 
Orinoco  explored  in  quest  of  gold  151. 

•54.  159 
Osiris.  Egyptian  Messiah  11 
Ouro  I'reito  mines  in  Brazil  247-8 
Ovando,  Gov.  of  the   Indies    (.America) 

144-5.  228 
Ovicdo,    as    veedor  (inspector)   164;  his 

History  cited  H)4 

Pacific  Ocean  disc.  163;  sailed  upon  170; 

by  Cortes  1S9 
Pacra,  cacique,  thrown  to  the  dogs  163 
Pactolus.  auriferous  river  .\sia  Minor  51 
Pagoda,  an  Indian  gold  coin  331 
Panama  plundered  164;  pearl  fishery  166 
Panics,  1S37.  3S4;  1850,  7.389;  1873,449 
Papal  Bullsdonating  the  earth,  i^cc  Bulls 
I'apcr,  printing  awaited  felted  loi 
Paper  moneys.  87.  457.  461 
Paraguay  missions  of  the  Jesuits  220,234 
Paulus  .-Emilius  plunders  Macedonia  91 
Paulus,  Roman  jurisconsult,  on  Money  86 
Pausanias  cited  14,  4S 


Peacock  Throne  Delhi  captured  322,  337 

Pearl  Coast  of  .\merica  154,  157 

Pearl  fishery  of  Panama  156 

Pearl  Islands  156,  166 

Pearls    in    Britain    82;    Tarragona    132; 

I'anama  156;    Venezuela  154 
Pedrarias,  Gov.  of  Panama  164,  168 
Pekin  re-founded  319;  plundered  318 
Pelasgian  gold  and  silver  mines  49,  51 
Peonage,  .Spanish  America   307;  British 

India  430 
Permutation, ancient  system  clearings  373 
Persia,  mines,  28;  Arabians  of,  125 
Peru,  pointed  out  by  Comogre's  son  162; 
plundered  by  Garcia  193;  Ayolas  217; 
Pizarro  197-9,  201;  ancient  e.xtent  209; 
population  199;  monetary  system  209; 
military  weapons  305;  absence  of  iron 
12;  depopulation  2uo;   present  condi- 
tion 20S 
Peso  overvalued  232.   See  also  Dollar 
Philip   II.  of   Spain  308;  III.,  232,  308, 

329;  IV..  233:  v.,  233 
Philippine  Islands  captured  by  Spain  302, 

349.  408 
Phillipps,  Sir  Thomas,  cited  177 
Phoenicians,    7,    8,   44,  47,  61;  voyages 
around  Africa  275;  alluded  to  as  "Ara- 
bians "  278 
Pillage  of  coast  towns  147,  215,  239 
Pinto,  Mendez,  discovers  Japan  303 
Pirates.      See    Corsairs,  Ayora,    Cortes, 

Pinlo,ctc. 
Pizarro,  Francisco,  at    Darien   162;    dis- 
covers   Peru    195;  goes  to  Spain  196: 
returns  and   plunders   Peru    13S,  I97; 
ransoms  the    Inca   198,   34S;   murders 
him  191);  his  own  death  203 
Pizarro's  brothers  150.  203 
Placer,  vein  and  hydraulic  mining  7,212, 

363,  399 
Plassy.  battle  of,  in  India  334,  342 
Plate,  silver,  owned  by  .Alboquerque  325 
Plateships,  route  of  18S;  registers  of  254 
Plato  cited  on  Money  86,  277 
Pliny  cited  14,  16,  22,  30.  48.55.69,72,93. 

99.  100,  104,  114, 278,  316,  365 
Plongeon,    French    explorer  of    Central 

American  ruins  187 
Plunder  of   Europe  by  the  Romans  87; 
of  Roman  provinces  by  the  .Arabs  281; 
of  .Asia  315;  India  337-8;  Japan   302; 
China    348;    .America    226;    American 
coast  towns  215,  239:  graves  1/.  v.;  in- 
fluence on  the  value  of  gold  462 
Pocorosa,  cacique,  tortured  by  .Ayora  166 
Poetsch  process  of  freezing  quicksand  392 
Political  economy  and  the  prec.  met.  225 
Pombal  banishes  the  Jesuits  225 
Pon,  or  pun,  East  Indian  name  for  gold, 
16.  17.  39 


474 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


Population  of  America  457;  Europe  136, 
457;  Christendom    457;     Orient     457; 
China  457;  Moorish  Spain  232;  ancient 
Peru  199;  Brazil  252;  Mexico  174,  177 
Portuguese  expeditions  to  the  Orient  322; 
plunder  of  the  Orient  325:   Brazil  239; 
cruelties  242,  244,  246,  322,  324 
Post-houses  established  by  the  Romans  99 
Pound  Sterling,  contents  fine  gold  430 
Potosi,  San  Luis,  in  Mexico  180-1 
Potosi,  San  Luis,  in  Peru  202,  217,  220, 

225;  produce  226 
Precious  Metals,  evolution  as  money  462; 
proportion  inherited  from  antiquity 
447;  proportions  acquired  by  conquest, 
slavery,  commerce  and  free-mining  la- 
bour 237,  447,  44S;  cost  of  production 
68,  83,  237,  253,  443.  453;  their  value 
453;  always  flow  toward  low  prices  258; 
produce  since  1492,  446,448;  consump- 
tion since  1675,  449;  stock  in  Rome  98; 
European  stock,  1492,  136;  in  1809, 
and  1829,  366;  stock  since  1675,  449; 
statistics  453;  desire  to  obtain  precious 
metals  has  spread  civilization  5;  liber- 
ated and  enslaved  mankind  180;  inter- 
diction of  the  290;  their  acquisition  de- 
vastated one  continent,  but  saved  an- 
other 180;  have  not  repaid  the  cost  of 
free-mining  labour  253 
Prempeh's  Golden  Stool  283 
Prerogative  of  money  233;  gold  312; 
mines  391,  420;  prize,  or  spolia  opima 

92,  336 
Prices,  stability  of,  93;  influenced  by  the 
velocity  of  money   458,  463;  in    India 
336;  Greece  App.  9;  Rome  69,  93,  106; 
Spain  132;  Japan  314;  Europe  69,124, 
136;  in  conquerors'  camps  190;  in  min- 
ing camps  of  Brazil  242;  Australia  419; 
Alaska    444;   general  level  of  69,  124, 
136;  rising  94,  314;  falling  106;  how  af- 
fected by  money  132,  463 
Printing  awaited  invention  of  paper  loi 
Privateers,  depredations  of,  330 
Prize,    a    prerogative    of    State   92.  336; 

Wellington's  opinion  concerning  337 
Production  of  the  precious  metals  q.  v. 
Property  formerly  insecure  in  Alaska  437 
Pumps,  Roman  mining,  deep  levels   72 
Pun,  ancient  name  for  gold  16,  17,  39 
Punic  wars  66,  89,  94 
Puritans  of  New  England  and  Jesuits  of 
Paraguay  221 

Quantity,  its  influence  of  upon  Value  448 
Quetzalcoatl,  American  messiah  175 
Quetzaltenango,  massacre  at  190 
Quicksilver,  Almaden,i22,i25,  360;  Car- 
niola  360;  scarce  in  Spanish  California 
411;  amalgamation  process  7,  134 
Quinto,  or  Royal   Fifth   on  Production, 


its  origin  229;  imposed  in  America  70, 
13S,  162,  170,  183,  204,  211,  228,  229, 
232-4,  243,  249,  254,  256,  261-2,  282, 
368,  391,  452 

Raffles,  Sir  Stamford,  cited  302 

Raleigh, Sir  Walter, exped. El  Dorado  152 

Ransom  of  Atahualpa  199;  East  Indian 
coast  towns  319,  345 

Rand  mines.     See   Witwatersrand 

Ratio  of  value  between  gold  and  silver, 
Rome,  81,  92,  123;  India  120;  Spain 
232-5;  Portugal  251,  258;  Japan  310; 
United  States  446;  generally  359 

Raynal,  the  Abbe  cited  133,  147,  178,188, 
212,  221,  253-4,312,321,323,325,329, 
331,  335,  344 

Repartimientos  200,  263.  See  Encoinicn- 
das 

Requerimiento  (Royal  proclamation  to 
the  American  Indians)  164,  21 S 

Residiencia,  a  mode  of  impeachment  1S4 

Retinue,  a  coinage  charge  136 

Revolutions:  i638,  214;  1732,  234;  1775, 
234,  360J  1789,  361;  iSio,  234,  359: 
Santa  Fe,  17S1.  359;  Australia,  1854, 
420;  Para  241 

Rhine,  auriferous  sands  of  the  122 

Rhinoceros,  remains  of  the,  in  Siberian 
tundras  3S5 

Rhone,  auriferous  river  in  Gaul  79 

Rice  rents  and  payments  in  kind,  in 
Japan  305;   Siam  451;  China  457 

Riode  Janeiro  founded  by  Huguenots  239 

Rio  Tinto  mines  in  Spain  62 

Rivers  fouled  by  mining  debris:  Egypt  33 ; 
Italy  58;  Cornwall  112;  Spain  66,  74; 
Brazil  236 

Roman, or  "  Romani,"  the  Moorish  name 
for  all  Europeans  131 

Rome,  early  history  S5;  early  moneys  10, 
85;  plunder  of  Europe  87;  halcyon  age 
92,94;   decline   of  the   Republic  lotj; 
rise   of  the   pagan    hierarchial   empire 
106;    plunder   of   Asia  87;   Africa  279; 
decline  of  the  hierarchy  123;  mines  and 
mining  121;  Fall  of  Constantinople  and 
virtual   end  of   the  empire  123;   Papal 
continuance  of  the  empire  and  grants 
of  territory  in  Africa,  Asia  and  America 
198,  238,  2S3,  322 
Rosen,  Baron  Romanovitch,  cited  377 
Royal  metals.   ':^ee  jMines  Royal  a.-nd  Roy- 
alties 
Royal  proclamation.     See  Requerimiento 
Royalties,  mining,  48,  138,  229,  395,420; 
Transvaal  432,  452;  United  States  434, 
460;  Klonkike  443;   Span.-Amer.  220; 
Russia  452 
Ruggles,  Samuel    B.,  an   American  com- 
missioner, 3SS 
Ruined  mining  districts.  See  Devastation 


HISTORY    OK    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


475 


Ruric  conquers  Novgorod  372 
Russia  :   mines   316,  372;  coins  374;  pro- 
duce 360,  3S9;jjuldsu-aliii^, Siberia  395 
Ryots  of  India, deplorable  poverty  19,336 

Sacramento  River  mines  34 

Sacred    character  formerly  attributed  to 

gold  13,  17,  230,  312 
Sacred  lakes  So,   141J,  176 
Saint  John  del  Rev.  Hrazil,  mines,  248 
Salt  mines  of  Salzburg,  Austria,  12 
San  Luis  f'otosi.     See  Fotosi 
Saracens  124,  280.     See  also  Arab-ans 
ScliiefHins  expedition  to  the  Yukon  137 
Scipio  Africanus  5,  ijo,  95 
Scythia, grandeur  of  the  ancient  common- 
wealth   13;  its  goKl  13;  plundered  by 
Darius  29;  retaliation  29 
Seigniorage  230,  232.  243.  249,  359 
Seneganibia,  mines  of  2J^o 
Serpiere,  strange  good  fortune  of,  47 
Sesterce,  a  Roman  coin  no 
Sevaji.  a  Mahratta  chieftain,  321,  339-40 
Seven  Cities  of  Chile  211;  Cibola  259 
Sheba,  Queen  of,  her  gt>ld  mines  294 
Skckel  (from  Sicca  and  Siccal)  an  East  In- 
dian and  a  Hebrew  coin  29 
Shelvocke  suspects  goKl  in  California  410 
Sherman,  John,  an  American  Senator  3S8 
Ships;    Corfrs    destroys    his   own    174; 

Chinese  and  Japanese  305 
Shipwrecks  of  Treasure  q.  v. 
Siam.  its  stock  of  precious  metals  451,456 
Siberia,    contpiest,    374;    plunder    374; 
graves  despoiled  374-5;  ancient  mines 
376;  forays  of  Yerniak  377;  mining  37S; 
Altai  district  3S4;  Yenesei  3S5;  Amur 
3S6;  produce  389 
SJcca-pili,  money  aboriginal  Nfexico  206 
Sil,  auriferous  river  in  Spain  63.  123 
Silver  and  gold  5,  7.      See  Prec.  Metals 
Silver  Question,  settlement  of  the,  in  the 

United  States  388,  403.464 
Silver,  selilom  found  in  metallic  form  5, 
9;  in  sandstone  121;  when  first  mined 
7.  62;  scarcity  in  the  Orient  13;  mines 
of  Spain  q.  z\\  of  Laurium  q.  v.\  ex- 
ports to  the  Orient  449;  spoil  of  Rome 
85;  coined  in  Rome  92;  system  of  Rome 
108;  mines  of  Rome  controlled  by  the 
Gentes  67,  70;  resigned  to  Roman 
viceroys  120;  mining  in  medieval  Eu- 
rope 122;  vast  discoveries  in  America 
q.v.\  alternately  raiseil  and  lowered  in 
gold  value  (see  Ratio);  protluced  by 
slavery  y.f.;  pavement  of  San  Jose  203; 
monetised  in  1850,  389;  demonetised. 
1873,  20;  purchased  at  half  price  by 
Russia  and  British  India  388.  403;  mint 
and  market  value  401 ;  market  price  in 
London  since  1 848,  400;  produce  of  the 
world  44G-S;  American  produce  swollen 


by  a  faulty  classit'ication  of  dore  bars 
403;  silver  miners  recently  turned  to 
>;(>ld  mining  399.  404;  world's  stock  456 
Sinople  (from  Sinope)  red-lead  ()3 
Slave  mining:  India  17,18,20,429;  Eg)'pt 
q.  •'. ;  Creece  q.  v.;  Rome  q.  v.\  Spain 
65,67,(>9;  Span. -Am.  178,187,201,218; 
223,  290;  North  America  371,  462;  Br. 
India    q.v.\    Congo    Free    Slate    301; 
South  Africa  289 
Slavery  forbidden  by  liuddhists  and  re- 
stricted   by   Moslems    id.  17;   African 
begun   by    I'ortuguese  272;  introduced 
into  America  by( oiumbus  141 ;  adopted 
throughout  Span. -Am.  145,21 1 ;  Apires 
of  Chile  213;    Brazil  242,  290;  negros 
fetched  from    Africa  240,  244,  252-3, 
282;    British   monopoly  of  slave  trade 
283;   British   India  333;  S.  Africa  289; 
Sp.-Am.    Revf)lution  against   367;    in- 
fluence of,  upon  value  of  prec.  met.  44S 
Slaves  paid  out  as  money  147 
Slaves,  prices  of,  219-20,  223,  244 
.Sloat,  (.  om.,  reports  gold  in  Calif. 399, 414 
Sluice  robbers  (of  pipe-clay)  15 
Smith,  Adam,  cited  85,  186 
Smith.  Capt.  John,  and  Pocahontas  271 
Soctbeer,  .Adolphe,  cited  287,  402 
Sofala  gold  mines  125,  272,  2S0,  293 
Solomon,  king,  his  gold  mines  16,  291 
Soudan,  gold  mines,  281 
Southey's  "I  list. of  Brazil,"  cited  255,257 
South  Africa.  See  .-/yV/Vrt,  Transvaal,tic. 
South  Sea.    See  Pacific  Ocean 
Spain,  the  Dorado  of   the   ancients  66; 
mining    by   the    Phoenicians,    Greeks. 
Carthaginians  and  Romans,  62-3;  an- 
cient   mines    71;    medieval    mines   79; 
gold  mines  of  Las  .Medulas  73-4;  cur- 
rent produce  71 
Spanish-.\n)erican  coins  228 
Spanish-.Anierican   Revolution  213,  359; 

produce  of  mines  366 
Sphericity  of  the  Earth  determined  102 
Spolia  opima,  Roman  commonwealth  92; 

Br.  India  366 
.Stability  of  Prices.      See  Prices 
Statistical  tax  on  produce  prec.  met.  401 
.Steam  engine  known  to  the  ancients  102 
.Steel  tools,  progress   of    mining  waited 

upon.     See  Iron 
.Stocks  of  Precious  Metals  q.  i>. 
Strabo  cited  14.  i(),  24,  26,  55,  57.  61,  65, 

67,  So,  316,  376 
Strahlenberg.  Baron  P.  J.  von,  cited  378 
Strezlecki  discovers  gold  in  .Australia  418 
Sun  dials  in  ancient  Rome  103 
.Supplies  of  the  Precious  Metals  q.  v. 
Suez  Canal, ancient  anil  modern  f)penings 
274,277,290;  connected  with  gold  min- 
ing 277 


476 


HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


Sutter.Capt.,  disc,  gold  in  Calif.  399,415 
Suvarna,  Sanscrit  term  for  gold  1 7 

Tacitus,  Cornelius,  cited  iii,  120 
Tafur's  chalk  line  determines  Pizarro  194 
Tagus,  alluvions  121,  123;  vein  mines  132 
Taiping  Rebellion  in  China  350 
Tamerlane  (Timur)  plunders   India  320, 

380 
Tapia,  Cristoval  de,  Cov.  New  Spain  1S3 
Tarentum,  spoil  of  87,  97 
Targitaus,  King  of  Scythia,  13 
Tartessus.     See  Gttadalqiiivcr 
Taxes  on  mining    19,  257,  428,  452;  in- 
sidious 359;  their  tendency  toward  eva- 
sion 257;  Russia  390;  British  America 
441;     United    States    441.      See    also 
Quiiiio,  Royalties, ^Xc. 
Terra  Firma,  coast  of  Venezuela  159 
Tiber,  auriferous  river  in  Italy  53 
Tibet,  15,  16,  18 

Timbuctoo,  gold  region  in  Africa  2S1 
Time,  as  an  element  of  price  458 
Tin,  9,  12,  64,  112;  coins  of  Mexico  206 
Tippoo  Saib,  sultan  of  Mysore  345 
Titles  and  distinctions  bartered  for  gold 

204,  264 
Tlascalans  destroyed  by  Cortes  95 
Tomas,   Santo,    on  the  depopulation  of 

America  201 
Toltecs  of  Mexico.     See  Aztecs 
Transvaal  mines  429;   secret  excavations 
431;  uninjured  by  the  Boers  431;  flight 
of  the  native  labourers  during  the  war 
431;  closure  of  the  mines  299;  royalties 
432;  extravagant  salaries  to  managers 
432;  wretched  pay  of  negros  432;  their 
practical  enslavement  432.     See  IVit- 
zvatersrand 
Travancore,  rajah  of,  pays  ransoms  345 
Treachery  of  gold-seeking  Spaniards  142, 
146,  157,  ibi;  Portuguese  328;   Dutch 
328;    French  330;    English    173,  334, 

342-3,  345 
Treasure  ships, Spanish,  route  of  188,408 
Treasure  trove  113,  138 
Tribute  232 
Troy,  Siege  of  23 

Tumbez,  Peruvian  watering  place  195 
Tundras  of  Siberia  3S4;  Alaska  440;  Br. 

Columbia  426 
Tungouses,  mines  of  the  374,  384 
Tschudis,  a  native  Asian  people  374,  376 
Turkey,  mines  in  27 

United  States,  mines,  9,  153,  266,  368, 
397,  460;  mining  policy  459;  laws  394, 
445,  45g;  taxes  401,  434,  460-1;  mint 
laws  401;  misleading  statistics  of  Mint 
Bureau  216,  401,  450,  454;  its  coinage 
materials  subject  to  foreign  control  406; 
Monetary  commissions  and  congresses. 


388;  produce  of  prec.  metals,  1848  to 
1900,  400;  discordance  of  authorities 
405;  influence  of  British  plunder  of 
India  on  Am.  Revolution  343;  proposed 
U.  S.  Department  of  Mines  462 

Ural  gold  mines  377,  387 

Uxmal,  ruins  of  187 

Vaca,  Alvar  Nunez  Cabe9a  de,  259,  263, 

407 
Valentine's  statistics  pre.  mets. ,  403,  437 
Value  is  a  relation, not  an  attribute  Pref. ; 
value  of  prec.  mets.  erroneously  attri- 
buted to  cost  83,  236,253,326,448,452; 
really  due  to  quantity  or  numbers  237; 
or  demand  and  supply  449 
Valverde,  Vicente  de,  a  cruel  fanatic  19S 
Vasco    Nunez    de    Balbao    161,  169;  his 

death  170 
Vedas,  The  Hindu,  cited  6 
Veedor  (inspector)  a  king's  officer  163-4 
Vein  mining.     See  Placer. 
Valasquez,  Gov.  of  Cuba  172 
Velocity  of  money  458 
Veneti,  an  ancient  race  21,  44,  61 
Venezuela  154,  156,  166 
Veru   Cruz  fortified  174;  route  of  plate 

ships  188 
Veraguas,  huacas  or  graves  of,  186 
Victoria,  Australia,  mines  416 
Villegagnon's  expedition  to  Brazil  238 
Virginia  City, Nevada,  g,  202,363,401,403 
Virginia  gold  mines.    See  Appalachian 
Voetsk,  Siberian  gold  mines  381 
Volcanic  eruptions  and  mines  17^ 

Wages  of  miners  19,  434,  439 
War  Funds  in  coins  and  bullion  457 
Ward's  "  Mexico,"  cited  178,186,365,367 
Wax  tablets,  found  in  Roman  mines  105 
Weather,  influence  upon  mining  439-40 
Weights  and  measures  231,  250 
Wellington,    Duke   of,  on  "  Prize,"  337; 

orders  siege  of  Seringapatam  346 
Western  World,  population  456;  produce 

of  precious  metals  446 
Wheat,  ancient  prices  of  93-4 
"White  Man's  God,"  the,  (gold)  146 
Wilson,  Chas.  Rivers, and  the  silver  legis- 
lation of  1870,  388 
Witwatersrand   mines  of    South    Africa, 
discovered,  294,  431;  banket  295;  early 
prospects     294,     295;     produce     296 
worked  practically  by  slaves  297,  448 
this  system  opposed  by  the   Boers  297 
friction  with  British  mine-owners  298 
War  298;  closure  of  the  mines  299 
Women  of  quality  as  grantees  of  Russian 

mining  concessions  385 
World's  produce,  consumption  and  stock 

of  the  precious  metals  449 
Writing,  Roman,  on  wax  tablets  105 


HISTORY   OK    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


477 


Wynaad.    See  Mysore 

Xenophon  on  the  mines  of  Laurium  45 

Xerxes,  Kinjj  of  I'crsia  51 

Xiquipili  (siccapili)  money  of  Mexico  206 

\'aquil  mines  of  Chile,  213 

Vencsei  valley,  ancient  Rock  cuttings  379 

Vcriuak.tilibuster,  mine  explorer  375,377 


York,  Duke  of,  in  slave-trade  284 
\'u,  or  Yao,  Chinese  deification  6 
Yucatan  172,  \^\\  pluiuler  of  graves  186; 

absence  i>f  silver  mines  iSO 
Yukon,  expedition  of  Schiefflin  437 

Zambesi  gold  regions.  See  Sofala 
Zanzibar  (Zanguebar)  125,  280 


'/ry 


-jy^ 


HISTORY    OK    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS.  479 


ERRATA. 

Page.  Line. 

13  37  After  "CietT,"  insert  a  parenthesis  "  )," 

35  39  For  "$S,"  read  '•Si<J." 

39  36  For  "  Ajjatharchides,"  read   "Agatharcides." 

59  17  For  "niinjj,"  read  "  mining." 

95  42  For  "  Report."  read  "  Kesources." 

132  23  P"or  "  Alkahem,"  read  "  Alhakeni." 

135  24  For  "upon  any,"  read  "of  aiiv.  ' 

136  37  For  "  sinking,"  read  "  shrinkinjj." 

137  34  After  "  Metals"  insert  "  first  edition." 

138  14  For  "alcade,"  read  "alcalde."     Same  on  lines  16  and  26. 

152  17  For  "  Donna,"  read  "  Dofla." 

153  25  For  "  from  first  to  last,"  read  *'  during  the  years." 
164  4  For  "Ovieda,"  read  "Oviedo." 

172  2  For  "  spoliation,"  read  "spoliation." 

173  29  For  "indiflerance,"  read  "  indifference." 
180  38  For  "lives  30,"  read  "  lives  of  20." 

1S5  14  For  "  conquisador."  read  "  conquistador." 

186    '  3  For  ".Sir  A.  G."  read  "Sir  II.  G." 

186  18  For  "  Vutacan,"  read  "  Yucatan." 

I9S  II  Strike  out  the  first  "of." 

197  iS  For  "Cassamarca,"  read  "  Casamarca."    Same  on  lines  27  and  35. 

198  2  For  "  is  a  mere  matter  of,"  read  "  was  subject  to." 
198  13  For  "  Cassamarca,"  read  "  Casamarca." 

198  24  For  "  Valverdo,"  read  "  Valverde." 

228  28  For  "  soft."  read  "  light." 

237  10  Insert  the  note-reference  figure  "  23  "  at  end  of  paragraph. 

242  35  For  "eat," read  "ate." 

250  39  For  "octava,"  read  "  oitava."     Same  as  to  "  octavas." 

273  7  For  "  then,"  read  "  them." 

286  16  For  "$(>92, 976,"  read  "$1,692,976." 

291  18  For  "  pientitude."  read   "plenitude." 

324  2t  For  "  suf-"  read  "  suffered." 

340  39  For  "is."  read  "are." 

345  15  For  "  its,"  read  "the." 

374  20  For  "  disadventages,"  read  "  disadvantages." 

380  10  For  "  Gagarin,"  read  "  Gargarin." 

380  25  For  "contain."  read  "  containeil  in  value." 

385  36  For  "  A'hinocerus  tifhorinus,"  read  *' Rhinoceros  tichorhinus. 

388  '16  For  "  1896."  read  "  1899." 

388  18  For  "  40,"  read  "  50." 

393  11  For  "  raised,"  read  "  revised." 

416  5  For  "chimerical  "  read  "  ephemeral." 

423  40  Hefore  "  the,"  insert  "in." 

427  9  Year  I S93,  for  "4,"  read  "  5." 

427  16  For  "$     800,000,"  read  "$63,800,000." 

427  35  For  "labourer."  read  "  miner." 

431  31  For  "achme."  read  "acme." 

438  16  For  "  incidcntly."  read  "  incidentally." 

443  31  Yox  "and."  read  "but." 

448  33  For  "  sf,"  read  "  of." 

452  9  For  "  prccicus,"  read  "precious." 


^^^B 


^s 


APPENDIX  A. 


THE    HALCYON    AHES    OF    GREECE. 


Causes  of  Greek  intellectual  pre-eminence — Opinion  of  Mr.  Clodd — Dr.  Francis 
Lieber — Real  cause  obscured  by  false  chronology — This  was  the  discover)-  of  Iron — 
les  Chrishna,  Tubal-Cain,  Eric-theus,  and  other  mytholo^ictl  inventors  of  iron — It 
was  first  used  for  weapons — Afterwards  for  mining  and  agriculture — These  considera- 
tions connect  the  systematic  opening  of  Laurium,  the  increase  of  Money  during  the 
Solonic  .vra,  and  the  rise  of  Greek  intellect — Kminent  Greeks  of  this  period — \ast  yield 
of  Laurium — .Assumption  of  mining  and  coinage  prerogatives  by  the  .State — .\chmeof 
Laurium,  tempo  Themistocles — Increase  of  Money — Rise  of  Prices — Stimulus  to  trade 
and  invention — Rewards  of  genius — First  Halcyon  Age — Decline  of  Laurium,  tempo 
Xenophon — Fall  of  prices — Arrest  of  development — Interval  of  inertia — Opening  of 
mines  and  militar)'  conquests  of  Philip — Plunder  of  Asia  by  .-Mexander — Increase  of 
money — Rise  of  prices — Revival  of  Greek  invention  and  enterprise — Eminent  men  of 
the  period — Return  of  the  precious  metals  to  .\sia — Decline  of  prices  and  industrial 
stagnation  in  Greece — Internecine  conflicts — Termination  of  the  .Second  Halcyon  Age 
— Conquest  of  Greece  by  the  Romans. 

In  his  recent  very  able  work  called  the  "Pioneers  of  Evolu- 
tion," Mr.  Edward  Clodd  intimates  that  the  cause  of  Greek  predom- 
inance in  the  ancient  world  of  thought  and  invention  was  that  they 
had  no  Bible.  "That  old  Greek  habit  of  askingquestions,  of  seeking 
to  reach  the  reason  of  things,  gave  the  greatest  impulse  to  scientific 
inquiry."  This  line  of  thought  seems  superficial.  Did  not  other 
peoples  ask  questions;  did  not  others  seek  to  reach  the  reason  of 
things;  did  not  the  Greeks  themselves  possess  a  Bible  in  the  works 
of  Homer,  so  that  down  to  the  days  of  Strabo  these  works  were  re- 
garded with  the  same  profound  veneration  that  we  now  accord  to  the 
writings  ascribed  to  Moses  and  the  Hebrew  prophets?  Did  the 
Greeks  not  believe  in  oracles,  and  submit  themselves  to  their  guid- 
ance; finally,  did  not  the  Greek  intellect,  once  so  predominant  in  the 
word  of  thought,  suddenly  collapse  after  the  a;ra  of  Alexander,  so 
that  never  since  has  it  evinced  any  superiority?  In  fact,  Greek  pre- 
(.lominance  only  existed  at  two  intervals.  The  first  one  extended 
from  about  the  time  of  Periander  or  of  Solon,  to  the  Peloponnesian 
War;  the  second,  from  that  of  Philip  or  of  Alexaniler,  until  the  Ro- 
man subjection  of  Achaia.  Neither  before  nor  after  those  periods 
did  the  Greek  intellect  exhibit  any  marked  superiority.  The  causes 
of  such  superiority  must  therefore  reside  in  some  circumstance  or 


2  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

circumstances  which  were  transient  and  pecuHar  to  those  periods,  and 
not  in  the  possession  or  absence  of  a  body  of  sacred  writings ;  because 
this  last-named  circumstance  is  not  of  a  transient,  but  of  a  permanent 
and  continuous  character. 

In  his  article  on  the  "Antique,"  pubUshed  in  the  Encyclopedia 
Americana,  Dr.  Francis  Lieber  attributes  Greek  predominance  to  the 
following  causes:  First,  "A  religion,  which  saw  in  the  gods,  ideal 
men;  which  raised  men  to  the  rank  of  gods;  and  personified  every 
quality  in  its  multitude  of  gods  and  demi-gods.  "  Second,  "  The  num- 
ber of  small  states"  into  which  Greece  was  divided.  Third, "The 
joint  celebration  of  the  Olympic  games  in  all  of  them."  And  Fourth, 
"  The  inventive  and  finely  tempered  spirit  of  the  people,  their  happy 
view^s  of  life,  the  mildness  and  beauty  of  the  climate,  and  the  fine 
marble  which  the  country  afforded  in  abundance."  Reasoning  of  this 
sort  is  of  little  w^orth.  It  does  not  explain  why  Greek  predominance 
began  and  ended  at  certain  well-defined  periods  and  afterwards  wholly 
ceased,  nor  does  it  connect  the  deification  of  heroes  or  the  personifica- 
tion of  attributes  with  the  capacity  to  excel  in  philosophy, mathematics 
and  the  fine  arts.  As  to  the  influence  of  the  Olympic  games  or  of  the 
possession  of  marble  quarries  upon  the  intellectual  and  inventive 
faculties  of  a  nation,  one  can  only  wonder  that  so  learned  a  man  as 
Dr.  Lieber  should  have  regarded  them  as  worthy  of  the  slightest 
consideration. 

The  principal  obstacle  that  prevents  us  from  utilizing  the  experience 
of  the  past  by  tracing  the  causes  and  effects  of  well-marked  socio- 
logical phenomena  is  a  false  chronology, which  insists  upon  according 
place  to  Adam,  Abraham,  Moses  and  other"  men  raised  to  the  rank  of 
gods,"  and  assigns  them  to  an  impossible  antiquity.  For  example,  we 
•are  told  in  the  Word  of  God  that  Tubal-Cain  first  worked  in  iron.  A 
statement  upon  such  authority  cannot  be  doubted,  but  when  we  are 
asked  to  believe  that  Tubal-Cain  was  an  antediluvian  who  lived  some 
tw^o  or  three  thousand  years  before  our  sera,  we  know  from  hundreds 
of  other  circumstances  either  that  this  is  false,  or  else  that  Tubal  kept 
the  process  of  making  iron  to  himself, which  the  Bible  itself  does  not 
permit  us  to  believe.  The  general  result  of  employing  pious  chron- 
ologies is  to  put  the  false  mark  of  a  pious  origin  upon  all  sociological 
phenomena.  This  result  is  exhibited  by  both  of  the  authorities  cited. 
Mr.  Clodd  attributes  Greek  predominance  to  the  absence  of  a  Bible. 
Dr.  Lieber  attributes  it  to  an  anthropomorphic  religion.  But  suppose 
it  can  be  shown  that  such  predominance  followed  closely  upon  the  in- 
vention of  iron,  what  would  become  of  these  pious  theories? 


THE    HALCYON     AiiKS    Of    GRKKi  K.  3 

The  process  of  making  iron  was  invented  soinewliereaiul  by  some- 
body. When  it  was  invented  it  must  have  occasioned  a  revolution  in 
every  department  of  human  activity  and  mentality ;  in  arms,  in  art,  in 
the  mode  of  living,  in  the  relations  of  social  Iife,antl  even  in  philosophy 
and  religion.  It  was  far  more  important  than  the  long  subsequent  in- 
vention of  gunpowder,  which  is  credited  with  the  most  far-reaching 
consequences  in  all  these  respects,  for  example,  with  the  conquest  of 
America,  the  exploitation  of  its  mines,  the  Halcyon  Age  of  Europe, 
and  the  Protestant  Reformation.  Can  it  be  doubted  that  the  inven- 
tion of  iron  had  similar  influences?  The  writer  has  elsewhere  indicated 
that  les  Chrisna,Tubal-Cain,  F^ric-theus,Ijacchus,  and  other  so-called 
inventors  of  iron  are  mere  astrological  myths;  that  in  fact  iron  was 
unknown  to  Western  Asia,  Egypt,  or  Greece  before  the  period  as- 
signed It)  Homer;  and  that  it  did  not  come  into  practical  use  until 
after  the  Messenian  revolt,  which  Pausanias  explicitly  connects  with 
the  earliest  use  of  iron  weapons  in  the  Levantine  world.  ' 

The  first  use  to  which  civilized  man  is  induced  to  put  a  new  invention 
is  military,  because  excellence  in  the  art  of  war  is  essential  to  the 
security  of  the  State.  The  second  use  is  economical,  because  profit  is 
essential  to  progress  and  happiness.  It  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that 
iron  was  originally  used  in  battle,  or  that  it  was  afterwards  used  for 
mining  and  agriculture.  These  considerations  connect  the  invention 
of  iron  with  the  systematic  opening  of  the  great  Laurium  mines,  the 
rise  of  prices  which  occurred  during  the  Solonic  period  and  the  sudden 
emergence  from  obscurity  of  that  intellectual  host  whose  works  have 
shed  an  immortal  lustre  upon  the  annals  of  the  Greek  "Colonies"  and 
States.'    Here  follows  a  partial  list  of  them: 

KMINKNT    GREEKS    OK    THE    SOLONIC    I'EKIUU  :    I 

Periander  of  Corinth,  Patron  of  Learning 

Arion  of  Lesbos,  Poet,  .... 

Draco  of  Athens,  Lawgiver,  .... 

Alcxus  of  Lesbos,  Lyric  poet,       .... 

Bius,         .  .  .  .... 

C'hilo  of  Sparta,  one  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece, 

Myson  of  Sparta,  one  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men, 

Ilychis,  .  .  .... 

Stcsichonis,  Poet,  ..... 

Cadmus  of  Miletus,  ..... 

.'Vnacharsis  of  Scythia,  one  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men, 
Solon  of  .Athens,  Lawgiver,  .... 

'  The  Cambridge  Monthly  Encyclopedia  for  January,  1899,  article  on  "  The  Early 
Hist  or)-  of  Iron." 

*  The  so-called  Greek  Colonies  in  Asia  are  mentioned  before  Greece  itself,  because 
modern  arch.xological  research  has  shown  that  it  is  more  prob.ibie  that  Greece  was 
populated  by  the  Colonies,  than  that  the  Colonies  were  populated  from  Greece. 


600 — 400. 

Born. 

Fl. 

Died. 

()(>:; 

625 

5S^ 

— 

621 

— 

621 

— 

— 

()00 

— 

— 

boo 

— 

— 

(XM 

— 

— 

(^KX) 

— 

— 

()0«) 

— 

.    f.32 

(kk> 

s;!;! 

— 

(>«J 

— 

— 

5'M 

— 

.     638 

592 

55J> 

HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 


EMINENT   GREEKS    OF   THE    SOLONIC    PERIOD:    B.  C.   6oO — 4OO. 


Sappho  of  Lesbos,  Poetess,  "  Hymn  to  Venus," 

Thales  of  Miletus,  Astronomer  and  Philosopher, 

Anaximander  of  Miletus,  Astronomer,  "Sun-dials," 

yKsop  of  Phrygia,  Fabuiist. 

Deptenus  of  Athens,  Sculptor, 

Scyllis  of  Athens,  Sculptor, 

Susarion  of  Athens,  Comedian,      , 

Dolon  of  Athens,  Comedian, 

Pisistratus  of  Athens,  (Poems  of  Homer,) 

Anaximenes  of  Miletus,  Philosopher, 

Scylax  of  Caria,  Geographer  and  Math.,  "  Periplus," 

^•Esculapius  of  Croton,  Physician, 

OLnopides  of  Chios,  Astronomer, 

Callimachus,  Architect,  "  Corinthian  order," 

Phocylides  of  Miletus,  Philosopher  and  Poet, 

Simonides  of  Cos,  Lyric  Poet, 

Thespis  of  Athens,  Tragedian, 

Pythagoras,  Astronomer  and  Philosopher, 

Theognis  of  Megara,  Elegaic  Poet, 

Hipparchus,  son  of  Pisistratus  of  Athens, 

Xenophanes,  Philosopher  and  Poet,  * 

Heraclitus  of  Ephesus,  Philosopher, 

Parmenides  of  Elis,  Astron.,  "  Sphericity  of  the  Earth," 

Aphrodisius,  Astronomer, 

Anacreon  of  Teos,  Lyric  Poet, 

Diogenes  of  Apollonia,  disciple  of  Anaximenes, 

Aristides  of  Athens,  Statesman,     . 

Pindar  of  Thebes,  Lyric  Poet, 

/Eschylus,  Tragic  Poet, 

Myron  of  Athens,  Sculptor, 

Harpalus,  Astronomer, 

Themistocles  of  Athens,  Statesman, 

Anaxagoras  of  Clazomense  and  Athens, 

Cimon  of  Athens,  Soldier,  , 

Zeno  of  Elia,  disciple  of  Parmenides, 

Pericles  of  Athens,  Statesman, 

Phidias,  Sculptor, 

Sophocles  of  Athens,  Tragic  Poet, 

Bacchylides  of  Cos,  Lyric  Poet, 

Antimachus  of  Colophon,  Poet  and  Musician, 

Philolaus  of  Thebes,  Lawgiver, 

Herodotus  of   Halicarnassus,  Historian, 

Epicharmus,  Earliest  Greek  Comic  Poet, 

Empedocles  of  Sicily,  Philosopher, 

Euripides  of  Salamis,  Tragic  Poet, 

Leucippus  of  Abdera,  Astronomer, 

Socrates  of  Athens,  Philosopher, 

Meton  of  Athens,  Astronomer, 

Eupolis  of  Athens,  Comic  Poet, 

Alcibiades  of  Athens,  Statesman, 


—  Continued. 

Born. 

Fl. 

Died. 

— 

592 

— 

636 

584 

546 

610 

578 

546 

— 

570 

— 

— 

568 

— 

— 

56S 

— 

— 

562 

— 

— 

562 

— 

612 

561 

527 

— 

556 

504 

— 

550 

— 

580 

548 

— 

— 

542 

— 

— 

540 

— 

— 

535 

— 

557 

535 

467 

— 

535 

— 

569 

533 

470 

570 

530 

490 

560 

530 

514 

— 

520 

— 

— 

513 

— 

— 

505 

— 

— 

500 

— 

533 

500 

478 

— 

500 

— 

— 

500 

46f 

522 

482 

442 

525 

480 

436 

— 

480 

— 

— 

480 

— 

514 

476 

449 

500 

464 

428 

— 

462 

449 

488 

460 

— 

— 

460 

429 

490 

460 

432 

495 

450 

405 

— 

450 

— 

— 

450 

— 

— 

450 

— 

484 

445 

408 

— 

445 

— 

490 

444 

— 

4S0 

442 

406 

4S0 

440 

— 

468 

435 

399 

— 

432 

— 

— 

428 

— 

450 

411 

405 

3  Xenophanes  remarked  that  "the  Ethiopians  represent  their  gods  black  and  flat- 
nosed,  while  the  Thracians  give  theirs  red  hair  and  blue  eyes."  From  this  observation 
it  appears  that  in  the  ancient  time  men  used  to  fashion  their  gods  after  themselves.  It 
also  appears  that  so  long  ago  as  the  epoch  of  Xenophanes,  the  Geta;,  or  Goths,  of 
Thracia  possessed  the  same  red  hair  and  blue  eyes  which  distinguish  them  to-day, 
whether  in  the  Baltic  provinces,  in  the  lowlands  of  Germany,  in  Scandinavia,  or  in  the 
British  Isles. 


MMI 


»cx).  —  Con 

lintiiii 

Born. 

Fl. 

Died. 

•         470 

40<; 

361 

— 

408 

.         471 

404 

401 

440 

404 

3'J5 

— 

4(X) 

— 

— 

4(j<j 

— 

427 

4(XJ 

347 

.       444 

400 

380 

— 

400 

— 

4()0 

400 

357 

444 

400 

359 

— 

400 

— 

— 

4(X> 

389 

— 

400 

362 

— 

37^ 

— 

— 

3(,(, 

— 

THE    HALCYON     AUKS    OF    GREECK. 
EMINENT   GREEKS    OK   THE   SOLONIC   I'ERIOD:    B.    C. 

Democritus  of  Abdera,  Philosopher, 

Apollodorus  of  Athens,  I'ainter, 

'Ihucvdidcs,  Ilistori;in,  "  I'cluponnesian  War," 

I. \ Sander,  Spartan  Clcneral  and  Admiral, 

(  ti>iias  of  (.niilus,  Historian,  .... 

Kiidid  of  Meyara,  I'hilosopher,  disciple  of  Socrates, 

I'lato  of  Athens,  Philosopher  and  Lawgiver, 

.\risiophanes  of  .'\thens.  Comedies, 

Archytas  of  Tartentum,  Mathematician  and  Philosopher, 

Hippocrates  of  Cos.  Father  of  Medicine, 

Xenophon  of  .Athens,  Soldier  and  Historian, 

Ari-itippus  of  Cyrcne,  Philosopher,  disciple  of  Socrates, 

Aiitisthenes  of  l'hry;;ia.  Philosopher,  "  Unity  of  CJod,". 

'I'lirasyhullus  of  .Athens,  .Soldier, 

Kpaniinontlas  of  Thebes,  Soldier, 

."^copas  of  Kphesus,  .Sculptor, 

Eudoxus  of  C'nidus,  Astronomer, 

Here  are  nearly  a  hundred  of  the  most  glorious  names  in  the  annals 
of  Ilium,  names  whicii  stand  for  e.xcellence  in  every  departnent  of  hu- 
man activity:  philosophy,  religion,  statesmanship,  science,  art,  and 
arms.  These  heroes  of  antiquity  all  flourished  within  a  j^eriod  of  two 
centuries,  namely,  from  600  to  400  B.  C.  We  have  now  to  en(iuire 
what  it  is  that  occurred  during  this  interval  to  create,  encourage,  and 
sustain  such  a  gala.xy  of  stars.  That  the  mines  of  Greece  were  first 
opened  by  an  Asiatic  race  whom  we  vaguely  call  Pelasgii,  or  Stone- 
workers,  is  susceptible  of  proof  from  existing  evidences,  for  the  re- 
mains of  their  works  are  still  to  be  seen  in  many  places.  Some  of  these 
are  in  theSunium  Peninsular,  a  fact  which  indicates  that  the  Laurium 
mines  were  originally  opened  by  these  people.  But  their  deeper  and 
more  systematic  working  awaited  the  invention  of  Iron  and  the  em- 
ployment of  iron  tools.  This  last  event  could  scarcely  have  occurred 
earlier  than  the  seventh  century;  for  it  was  at  this  period  that  the 
Greeks  got  control  of  Laurium  and  still  later  when  the  mines  were 
thrown  open  by  the  .Vthenian  government  to  be  worked  subject  to  the 
control  and  regulation  of  the  State.  At  that  perit)d  gold  was  valued 
in  the  coinages  of  India  at  i  ft)r  5  of  silver.  By  raising  the  value  of 
gold  in  its  coinages  to  i  for  10  of  silver,  the  .\thenian  government  got 
its  silver  from  the  farmers  of  the  mines  at  one-half  the  price  in  gold 
coins  for  which  it  exchanged  its  silver  with  India  for  gold,  thus  making 
cent  per  cent  profit  on  the  entire  product  of  Laurium.  This  district 
reached  its  achme  in  the  time  of  Themistocles,  about  475  B.  C,  at 
which  period  it  annually  yielded  from  360  to  480  quintals  of  pure  silver, 
equal  in  value  at  that  time  to  from  36  to  48  quintals  of  gold;  that  is 
to  say,  over  a  million  dollars  of  the  present  coinage.  From  the  first 
employment  of  iron  tools  in  these  mines  to  the  xra  of  Themistocles 


6  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

was  an  interval  of  about  two  centuries,  during  which,  Laurium  must 
have  annually  thrown  into  the  Greek  mints  between  loo  and  200  quin- 
tals of  silver.  Among  the  numerous  effects  of  this  steady  accession  to 
the  monetary  circulation  was  the  resumption  by  the  Greek  states  of 
their  control  and  regulation  of  the  mines,  which  previously  had  fallen 
into  private  (chiefly  ecclesiastical)  hands ;  and  the  control  and  regula- 
tion of  the  coinage,  which  had  been  usurped  in  a  similar  manner.  The 
Athenian  coins  were  struck  from  pure  silver,  without  alloy,  and  bore 
the  device  of  an  owl.  Their  weight  and  purity  was  so  rigidly  and  uni- 
formly maintained  that  they  commanded  for  centuries  the  circulation 
of  the  Mediterranean  and  western  Asiatic  world.  Egypt,  Arabia,  Ethi- 
opia, Scythia,  and  even  Persia  and  Hither  India  gave  them  currency. 

But  the  principal  result  of  the  large  and  steady  production  of  silver 
from  Laurium  and  its  exchange  for  gold  with  India,  was  an  enormous 
increase  of  money  in  Attica  and  the  surrounding  Greek  states  and  a 
prodigious  yet  not  simultaneous  rise  of  prices,  which,  though  imper- 
fectly understood,  has  been  faithfully  chronicled  by  the  labourious 
Boeckh,  in  his  "  Political  Economy  of  Athens."  The  period  of  this 
rise  of  prices  agrees  so  perfectly  with  that  of  the  State  control  of  the 
silver  mines  and  currency  that  no  doubt  can  be  entertained  of  their 
connection.  It  also  synchronizes  with  the  rise  of  Greek  intellect. 
"Until  this  period,"  (the  Solonic,)  says  the  Rev.  Henry  F.  Clinton, 
in  his  Fasti  Hellenic^e,  i,  viii,  "the  Athenians  displayed  no  signs  of  that 
intellectual  superiority  which  they  were  destined  to  assume."  Arise 
of  prices  means  greatly  increased  rewards  for  exertion ;  and  when  such 
rewards  are  to  be  obtained,  there  never  fails  to  appear  a  class  of  men 
to  claim  them  and  to  establish  their  claims  by  works.  A  steady  rise 
of  prices  offers  freedom  to  the  slave,  competency  to  the  freeman,  riches 
to  the  ingenious,  enjoyment  and  security  to  the  wealthier  classes,  and 
opportunity  to  all.  Such  was  the  condition  of  the  Greek  States  during 
the  Solonic  days.   Unfortunately  it  was  not  to  last  forever. 

About  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  B.  C.  the  mines  of  Laurium 
were  worked  to  the  limits  then  practicable.  A  generation  later  they 
yielded  so  poor  a  return,  (at  the  rate  fixed  upon  silver  by  the  Attic 
mints,)  that  they  were  gradually  deserted.  Xenophon,  who  wrote  his 
"Revenues  of  Athens"  about  B.  C.  400,  pathetically  alludes  to  their 
abandonment  and  couples  it  with  the  low  state  of  the  public  treasury, 
which  he  proposes  to  remedy  by  reopening  the  mines  with  10, 000  slaves, 
to  be  worked  on  public  account.  The  proposal  proves  that,  whilst  he 
Avas  a  famous  soldier,  he  was  a  poor  miner  and  a  worse  financier.^ 

•*  President  Grant's  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  the  silver  dollar  had  been  demonetized 
during  his  own  administration  affords  another  instance  of  the  incompatibility  of  soldier- 
ing and  finance. 


THK    HALCYON    AOES    OF    GREECE. 


The  epoch  of  Xenophon  saw  the  end,  for  a  time,  of  Greek  predom- 
inance. The  mines  were  practically  exhausted,  the  rise  of  prices  ceased, 
the  industry  of  Cireece  stagnated,  and  theCireek  intellect  became  pet- 
rified. In  spite  of  Mr.  Clodd's  theory  of  Kntpiiry, in  spite  t>f  Dr.  Lieber's 
theory  of  Anthropomorphism,  Olympic  games,  and  Marble  quarries, 
the  light  of  Greece  was  extinguished,  to  be  relighted  only  when  .\le.\- 
ander  plundered  the  oriental  world. 

It  cannot  be  too  often  repeated  nor  too  strenuously  asserted  that 
its  function  as  a  measure  of  value  gives  to  Money  a  social  and  politi- 
cal bearing  which  transends  in  importance  all  other  economic  inHu- 
ences  and  which  renders  it  an  element  of  historical  consideration  that 
never  can  be  safely  left  out  of  view. 

Turning  now  from  the  Solonic  to  the  Alexandrian  age,  we  begin,  in 
like  manner,  with  a  list  of  those  eminent  Greeks  whose  names  stand 
for  excellence  in  the  various  pursuits  with  which  they  were  connected. 


EMINENT    GREEKS    OK    THE    ALEXANDRIAN    I'ERIOD:    U.   C.    35O-I5O. 

Horn.        Fl. 

Theopompus  of  Chios,  Historian, 

.Kschincs  of  .Athens,  Orator,  .... 

Ephorus  of  Cunuv,  (Etolia.)  Historian, 

Demosthenes  of  Athens,  Orator, 

Philip,  son  of  Amyntas,  Kinjj  of  Macedon, 

Caliipus  of  Athens,  Astronomer, 

Apelles  of  Cos,  Painter,      ..... 

Alexander  the  Cireat,  King  of  Macedon,    . 

Callisthenes  of  Olynihus,  Historian, 

Aristotle  of  Stagyra,  Morals,  Philosophy,  Political  Economy, 

Euclid  of  .Alexandria,  Ceometrician,  "Elements," 

Theophrastus,   Philosopher,  "  De  l.apidus," 

Pytheas  of  Massilia,  Ceographer  and  Navigator, 

Zeno  of  Citium,  Stoic  Philosopher, 

Megasthenes,  Traveller  and  .Ambassador  to  India, 

Menander  of  Athens,  Comic  Drama, 

Aristarchus  of  Samos,  .Astonomer  and  Philosopher, 

Bion  of  Smyrna,  Bucolic  Poet,       .... 

Epicurus,  .Attic  Philosopher,  .... 

Theocritus  of  Sicily,  Idyls,  .... 

Aratus  of  Cicilia,  .Astronomer,  "  Phenomena," 

Ephorus  of  Ephesus,  Painter,        .... 

Agesanilros  of  .Antioch,  Sculptor,  "Venus  di  Milo," 

Lycophron  of  Chalcis,  Tragic  Poet,  "Cassandra," 

.Archimedes  of  Syracuse,  Mathematician, 

Moschus  of  Syracuse,  Idyls,  .... 

Callim.ichus  of  Alexandria,  Epigrams, 

Cleanthes  of  .Assos  in  Troas,  Stoic  Philosopher,  . 

Apollonius  of  Pcrga,  "Conic  Sections,". 

Eratosthenes,  Astronomer,  Philosopher,    . 

•Apollonius  Khotlius,  ".Argonautics,"  (Poem,  > 

.Alexander,  the  Isian  Orator,  .... 

-Attains  khodius,  Mathematician,  .... 

Polybius  of  Megalopolis,  "Histor)'of  Rome." 

Hipparchusof  Nic.xa,. Astronomer, "Eclipses";  "I, at.  and  Long.' 

.Apollodorus  of  .Athens,  Mythologist,  "Bihlotheca," 

Nicander  of  Colophon,  Physician  and  Poet,  "Theriaca." 


Died. 


*    3S9 

J34 
350 

314 

— 

3  SO 

— 

■   3!>5 

348 

322 

3^2 

340 

336 

— 

330 

— 

.   336 

327 

333 

— 

330 

— 

— 

328 

— 

.   3S4 

325 

322 

— 

320 

— 

370 

320 

304 

— 

320 

— 

362 

320 

263 

— 

312 

— 

342 

306 

291 

— 

280 

— 

— 

2  So 

— 

342 

2S0 

270 

— 

273 

— 

— 

272 

— 

— 

2<.5 

— 

— 

265 

— 

— 

2()0 

— 

2S7 

250 

212 

— 

250 

— 

— 

250 

240 

330 

250 

240 

— 

240 

— 

274 

240 

194 

— 

2tX) 

— 

— 

200 

— 

— 

'73 

— 

'.       206 

165 

124 

— 

\()0 

125 

— 

150 

— 

— 

— 

— 

8  HISTORY    OF    THE    PRECIOUS    METALS. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  eminent  persons  of  the  Alexandrian  period 
are  not  half  so  numerous  as  those  of  the  Solonic  period,  although  the 
latter  is  over  two  centuries  earlier.  This  is  due  to  that  general  destruc- 
tion of  the  later  Greek  literature,  which  the  pretentions  to  divinity  of 
Alexander,  Seleueus,  Ptolemy,  and  several  of  their  successors  ren- 
dered necessary.  The  same  thing  may  be  observed  of  other  ancient 
literatures:  everything  was  destroyed  which  did  not  harmonize  with 
the  worship  of  emperors.^ 

However  few  in  number,  these  names  represent  the  acme  of  human 
attainment  in  the  moral  and  political  sciences,  in  philosophy,  mathe- 
matics, astronomy,  and  art.  For  accuracy  of  observation  and  profund- 
ity of  thought,  Aristole,  for  ages  andages,stood  unrivalled.  The  "Ele- 
ments "  of  Euclid  are  still  employed  as  a  text  book  in  our  schools ;  the 
Venus  di  Milo  of  Agesandros  is  the  finest  piece  of  statuary  in  the  world. 
That  so  many  great  men  should  have  appeared  in  a  single  country  and 
within  a  period  of  two  centuries,  to  be  followed  by  twenty  other  cent- 
uries of  degeneracy  and  retrogression, bespeaks  a  cause  peculiar  to  the 
time,  the  place,  and  the  circumstances.  We  venture  to  assert  that  no 
other  cause  than  the  Rise  of  Prices  which  followed  the  campaigns  of 
Philip  and  his  son,  Alexander  the  Great,  will  satisfactorily  account  for 
this  second  Halcyon  Age  of  Greece.  To  say  nothing  of  Philip's  mining 
revivals  and  military  conquests,  Alexander,  within  the  space  of  four 
years  following  the  battle  of  Issus,  seized  upon  the  treasures  of  Egypt, 
Persia, Bactria, and  Hither  India, and  coined  them  into  those  beautiful 
pieces  which  are  yet  so  abundant  as  to  be  more  common  than  the  coins 
of  Washington,  which  were  struck  twenty  centuries  later.  A  rise  of 
prices  immediately  followed  this  great  increase  of  money, and  the  dor- 
mant energies  of  the  Levantine  States  were  once  more  set  in  motion. 
Notwithstanding  the  disordered  condition  in  which  the  Macedonian 
empire  was  left  by  the  premature  death  of  Alexander;  notwithstanding 
the  division  of  his  empire  into  several  kingdoms;  they  all  enjoyed  a 
degree  of  prosperity  which  the  countries  they  comprised  had  not 
known  for  several  centuries.  Egypt  under  the  Ptolemies,  Syria  under 
the  Seleucidee,  Greece  during  the  Achaean  League,  and  Bactria  under 
Diodotus  and  his  successors,  were  both  rich  and  progressive.  The 
rewards  of  talent  and  industry  were  ample  and  stimulating;  direct  in- 
tercourse with  India  threw  open  new  stores  of  wisdom,  new  avenues 
of  adventure,  and  new  means  of  profit.  Unfortunately  this  commerce 
was  neither  beneficial  nor  lasting.  There  is  a  fatality  in  the  Indian 
trade  which  has  attended  every  nation  that  has  enjoyed  it.  Perhaps  it  is 
*  "  Middle  Ages  Revisited,"  Appendix  F. 


THE  HALCYON  AGES  OK  GREECE.  9 

the  influence  of  Indian  thought;  more  likely  it  is  the  proneness  ami 
capacity  of  India  to  absorb  the  precious  metals  from  theWest. a  subject 
that  eighteen  centuries  ago  attracted  the  attention  and  elicited  the 
laments  of  IMiny  the  Elder  and  that  still  engages  theattention  of  econo- 
mists and  statesmen.* 

The  effects  of  Alexander's  conquests  were  more  permanent  than  the 
profits  of  the  Indian  trade.  They  rendered  money  plentiful;  prices 
rose;  industry  was  stimulated  ;  genius  was  rewarded.  But  conquest  is 
not  production.  The  plunder  of  Asia  gradually  found  its  way  back  to 
Asia;  the  rise  of  prices  turned  to  a  fall;  industry  gave  place  to  inter- 
necine wars,  and  these  paved  the  way  to  ruin.  Within  two  centuries 
after  Alexander  returned  to  Babylon  laden  with  the  spoils  of  Persia 
and  India,  the  Greek  States  were  under  the  heel  of  Rome  and  their 
second  and  last  Halcyon  Age  was  over. 

'  So  late  as  the  year  1899,  the  Boer  War  and  the  stoppage  of  gold  supplies  from  South 
Africa,  compelled  England  to  postpone  its  policy  of  introducing  a  gold  currency  into 
India  and  to  order  home  the  gold  that  had  been  sent  out  in  pursuance  of  such  policy. 

^  After  having  remained  closed  for  more  than  two  thousand  years,  the  Laurium  mines 
during  the  decade  A.  D.  1870-S0,  yielded  over  two  million  dollars 


UNIVERSITY 


DEL  MAR'S  WORKS 


AMI    OTllKKS. 


PUBLISHED  BY 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  ENCYCLOPEDIA  CO. 

No.  240  WEST  TWKXTV-rHIRl)  STREET, 
NKW  YORK. 

For  expedition,  address  Post  Ojljice  Box  160,  M .  S.,  A'eiv   York. 


Remit  hy  Post-Ofkick  Okdkr  ok  Dkakt  on  Nkw  York. 


ROME:   THE    MOTHER    OE   STATES. 


Prom    The  Boston  Public  Library  Bulletin,  July,  /go/. 

THE  MIDDLE  AGES  REVISITED  ;  or  the  Roman  Government  and 
Religion  from  Augustus  to  the  Fall  of  Constantinople.  Uy  Ale.\.  Del 
Mar  ;  Svo,  pp.  400.  The  Cambridge  Encyclopedia  Publishing  Co..  240 
West  Twenty-Third  Street,  New  York.     Net,  $3. 

THE  author  of  this  work,  formerly  a  Bureau  officer  of  tlie 
United  States  Treasury,  delegate  to  Russia,  etc.,  is 
rapidly  rising  into  public  esteem  as  an  historical  writer. 
His  preparation  for  this  difficult  eminence  was  a  ripe  scholar- 
ship and  15  years  of  clo?e  study  in  the  British  Museum  and 
Bibliotheque  Nationale,  during  which  time  he  issued  several 
monographs  on  classical  literature,  Roman  history,  archae- 
ology, ancient  manuscripts  and  coins;   all  of  which  obtained 


Published  by  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia  Co. 

immediate  recognition  in  England  and  France  as  works  of 
the  latest  and  most  complete  research.  His  first  appearance 
as)  an  historian  of  that  theme  of  themes,  the  Roman  Empire, 
was  in  "Ancient  Britain  in  the  Light  of  Modern  Archaeolog- 
ical Discoveries,"  of  which  work  the  British  critical  press 
said:  "This  is  a  boundless  store  of  information  neglected 
by  ourselves  and  garnered  by  a  scholarly  American.  He  re- 
constructs Roman  Britain,  a  country  full  of  busy  cities,  sea- 
ports and  industrial  centres,  connected  by  fine  highways,  of 
majestic  temples  and  villas, and  of  a  splendidly  organized  com- 
merce." His  second  work  in  the  same  role  is  the  one  before 
us,  "The  Middle  Ages  Revisited." 

We  defer  our  opinion  of  this  work  until  after  some  revievvr 
•of  its  contents;  a  task  which,  owing  to  its  immense  scope, 
its  brevity  of  style  and  the  grandeur  of  the  theme,  is  suffi- 
cient to  tax  all  the  resources  of  condensation.  Perhaps  this 
may  best  be  accomplished  by  placing  ourselves  as  it  were 
somewhat  in  the  attitude  of  the  author. 

In  describing  the  Roman  government  and  religion  and  their 
relation  to  the  states  of  the  modern  world,  it  will  scarcely  fail 
to  appear  that  the  Constitution  of  the  Empire,  the  Christian- 
ization  of  its  institutes  and  the  position  of  the  Medieval  Em- 
pire and  the  provinces,  until  the  latter  became  independent 
kingdoms,  is  the  key  to  all  modern  history;  that  it  has  its 
practical  importance  and  conveys  its  lessons  for  the  future. 
In  weighing  the  evidences  which  throw  light  upon  thesesub- 
iects,  the  author  is  compelled  to  trace  the  ancient  systems 
of  mythology  and  religion.  It  is  evident  that  he  would  gladly 
have  avoided  a  subject  of  so  much  contention;  but  this  was 
found  impracticable.  Society  is  to  some  extent  the  product 
of  religious  belief.  To  appreciate  the  spirit  of  the  laws  under 
which  we  live  and  must  act,  it  becomes  necessary  to  follow 
the  evolution  of  religious  systems.  Says  the  author:"  We  have 
entered  the  arcana  of  the  Sacred  College  not  to  profane  its 
mysteries,  buc  to  fill  our  pitchers  at  its  holy  fount. " 

When  civil  strife  had  so  much  exhausted  the  Romans  that 
they  were  unable  to  prevent  the  overthrow  of  their  repub- 
lican institutes,  or  resist  the  erection  of  a  Pagan  Hierarchy, 
they  accepted  from  their  tyrants  a  form  of  religion  so  im- 
pious and  degrading  as  to  speedily  disgust  the  better  classes 
of  citizens  and  turn  them  against  a  government  in  whose  sup- 
port they  had  formerly  taken  an  active  and  prominent  part. 


PUBLISHKI)    HV     IHK    CaMUKIUGE    KnC  VC  LOl'KDIA    CO. 

""Cnesar  claims  to  be  a  god,"  cried  Cicero.  "He  has  his 
temples,  stee[)les,  priests  and  choristers,"  and  the  orator 
-sealed  his  indignation  with  his  blood.  This  feeling  found 
popular  echo  in  ilistant  [irovinces  like  Judea  and  15ritain, 
where  it  occasioned  those  frequent  insurrections  which  dis- 
tinguished the  first  century  of  our  a^ra.  'I'he  religion  which 
fomented  these  insurrections  Avas  the  worship  of  Coesar  as 
the  Supreme  Heing.  Though  it  led  to  Caisar's  assassination 
by  a  party  of  Roman  patricians,  he  was  supjilantetl  by  Augus- 
tus, who,  after  his  concjuest  of  the  Roman  world,  adopted 
precisely  the  same  impious  pretensions.  Were  not  Ptolemy, 
Antonius,  Sextus  Pomjieius,  Deiotaurus  and  many  other 
sovereigns,  who  were  destroyed  by  .\ugustus,  worshij)ped  by 
their  subjects  as  gods;  and  could  Augustus  be  less  of  a  god 
who  had  subdued  them  all,  who  had  extended  the  Roman 
Empire  from  Gades  to  India  and  from  Britain  to  the  ex- 
tremities of  the  known  world  ?  In  the  reign  of  Trajan,  the 
careful  Tacitus  could  afford  to  write:  "The  reverence  due 
to  the  (ancient)  goils  was  no  longer  exclusive.  Augustus 
claimed  equal  worship.  Temples  were  consecrated  and  images 
erected  to  him;  a  mortal  man  was  worshipped;  and  priests 
and  pontiffs  were  appointed  to  pay  him  impious  homage." 
llut  there  was  a  dread  interval  of  nearly  a  century  when  to 
have  written  as  much  would  have  cost  the  historian  his  life, 
subjectetl  his  relatives  to  banishment  and  confiscated  his  and 
their  patrimonies. 

Our  author  shows  upon  a  body  of  evidence  drawn  largely 
from  contemporaneous  inscrijitions,  coins  and  customs,  that 
it  was  upon  this  pivot,  the  worship  of  the  Caesars,  that  turned 
the  history  of  Rome  for  centuries;  because  even  after  the 
impious  belief  was  rejected  by  the  educated  classes,  it  was 
cherished  by  the  vulgar.  Yet  only  the  faintest  allusions  to 
it  will  be  found  in  our  standard  works  of  reference.  In  Mr. 
Del  Mar's  work  it  is  brouglit  into  relief.  It  is  then  perceived 
that  the  true  grandeur  of  Christianity  and  the  moral  lessons 
of  its  conquest  over  Paganism  have  been  hidden  from  the 
light  by  a  false  history  of  the  Roman  religion  and  its  devel- 
opment. "  No  greater  struggle  was  ever  fought  and  none  so 
belittled  by  petty  conceits  and  fables.  Not  only  this,  but  if 
the  edifice  by  which  the  aims  of  civilization  are  supported, 
continues  to  be  poised  upon  the  flimsy  foundations  which  the 
medieval  monks  constructed,  it  is  exposed  to  the  risk  of  being 


Published  by  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia  Co. 


injured  by  the  attacks  which  modern  criticism  and  satire  may 
make  upon  these  childish  and  vulnerable  elements." 

Passingfrom  the  religion  to  the  civil  institutes  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  the  author  challenges  the  accepted  origin  and  spirit 
of  the  Feudal  System.  The  views  sf  Robertson,  Hallam, 
Guizot,  Buckle,  Bishop  Stubbs  and  others,  are  examined  with 
a  justice  and  acumen  that  belong  to  the  highest  order  of  his- 
torical criticism.  Their  attribution  of  Feudalism  to  a  bar- 
barian origin,  their  fixing  it  upou  the  basis  of  military  service, 
their  treatment  of  beneficium  and  commendatio,  are  scat- 
tered into  thin  air.  Feudal  systems  have  been  found  in  India, 
Japan,  Egypt  and  Mexico,  countries  which  had  nothing  in 
common  with  the  institutions  of  medieval  Europe,  except 
their  hierarchical  governments.  Feudalism  is  even  to  be  dis- 
cerned in  the  early  days  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the  charters 
of  Julius  and  Augustus, in  the  lawsof  Diocletian  and  Justinian, 
in  the  land  tenures  and  customs  whose  roots  were  buried  in 
the  Sacred  College  of  Paganism.  We  will  not  divest  our  au- 
thor of  the  interest  with  which  he  has  invested  this  problem 
by  anticipating  its  solution.  We  recommend  its  treatment 
as  the  best  specimen  of  historical  writing  which  has  appeared 
since  the  publication  of  Gibbon's  immortal  work. 

The  institutes  of  the  Roman  Empire;  the  rise  of  Christ- 
ianity; the  christianization  of  these  institutes;  the  rise  of  the 
Medieval  Empire;  the  Lost  Treaty  of  Seltz  (between  Charle- 
magne and  Nicephorus,  defining  their  respective  boundaries, 
powers  and  prerogatives);  the  Constitution  of  the  Medieval 
(German) Empire;  the  fall  of  the  Roman  (Byzantine)  Empire 
in  1204;  the  Guelf  and  Ghibelline  Wars;  and  the  legal  and 
actual  position  of  the  Roman  provinces  during  these  changes, 
are  told  with  a  force  of  diction,  an  elegance  of  style  and  a 
wealth  of  illustration,  which  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired  by 
the  reader.  The  work  is  a  revelation.  It  proves  that  the 
archseological  finds  of  the  past  half  century  have  placed  at 
our  command  a  store  of  learning  which  only  needs  scholar- 
ship, mental  digestion  and  charm  of  style  to  render  it  of 
absorbing  interest  and  practical  value  to  the  reading  world. 
These  are  the  materials  which  our  author  brings  to  his  great 
task.  The  scaffolding  of  the  work  is  hid  from  sight ;  one  sees 
only  the  perfected  edifice,  in  which  there  are  no  awkward 
joints,  no  evidences  of  patching,  no  tiresome  digressions,  no 
second-hand  evidences,  no  unnecessary  foot-notes.   A  perfect 


rri'.i.isui  1)   i,v    iMK  C\\Mi:kiDc;F.   Kn-cyci.oi'K-dia   Co. 

grasp  and  critical  sitiing  ot  original  evidences;  a  ripe  jiulg- 
nicnt  in  tiieselection  anil  arrangement  of  materials;  a  motlest 
but  complete  mastery  of  his  subject;  thorough  assimilation  of 
its  elements;  and  a  practised  hand  in  wielding  the  pen.  Such 
are  the  impressions  which  the  work  conveys;  a  work  which 
we  venture  to  say  must  place  its  author  upon  a  very  high  liter- 
ary pedestal. 

There  is  but  one  fault  we  have  to  find  with  it.  Its  title,  in 
full,  is  "The  Middle  Ages  Revisited;  or  the  Roman  Govern- 
ment and  Religion  and  their  Relations  to  Britain,"  and  we 
are  bound  to  say  the  work  is  faithful  to  the  title.  But  why 
tmly  Britain?  Why  not  "And  their  Relations  to  Modern 
States?"  The  author  shows  very  conclusively  that  Britain, 
long  after  the  time,  when,  according  to  received  history,  it 
was  an  independant  monarchy,  was  in  fact  merely  a  province  of 
tiie  hierarchy,  governed  variously  at  Treves,  Aix  la  Chapelle. 
or  Rome,  according  as  medieval  Emperor  or  Pope  maintained 
the  paramountship  of  the  slowly  dying  Empire  of  Caisar. 
This  position  was  as  true  of  France  as  of  Britain.  Why  not 
then  have  embraced  France  in  those  chapters  on  the  "Earliest 
exercise  of  certain  regalian  rights,"  "The  Birth  of  the  inde- 
pendent Monarchy,"  etc.,  which  close  this  memorable  vol- 
ume ?  Mr.  Del  Mar's  earlier  works  have  been  translated  into 
French,  and  have  a  wide  reading  in  P'rance.  Has  he  not,  in 
this  instance,  unwittingly  cut  himself  off  from  a  friendly 
market? 

Our  Public  Libraries  will  peculiarly  appreciate  Mr.  Del 
Mar's  work.  It  is  printed  in  bold  type  (old  style,  ten-point, 
leaded,  with  eight-point  notes),  on  clear  stout  paper  and  cop- 
iously indexed.  One  of  its  chief  features  for  the  Librarian 
is  the  Bibliography,  which  takes  up  14  pages  of  eight-point 
type  and  includes  a  number  of  rare  works,  of  which  only  a 
student  in  the  great  Libraries  of  Europe  would  be  likely  to 
have  any  knowledge.  To  such  works,  the  author  attaches  a 
brief  descriptive  notice,  which  will  be  useful  to  book  collec- 
tors not  having  access  to  the  originals;  and  to  all  of  them  he 
appends  the  shelf  number  of  the  British  Museum  Library;  in 
oriler  to  save  the  student  the  troulile  of  searching  its  im- 
mense catalogue,  in  itself  a  Library,  we  believe,  of  several 
hundred  volumes. 


DEL  MAR'S  WORKS. 


I 


Alexander  Del  Mar  was  born  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
and  educated  as  a  Civil  and  Mining  Engineer.  In  1862  he- 
published  "Gold  Money  and  Paper  Money,"  and  in  1S65 
"  Essays  on  the  Treasury."  In  that  year  he  was  appointed 
Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics,  at  that  time  a  Board  of 
Trade,  with  executive  functions,  among  others  the  Super- 
vision of  the  Commissioners  of  Mines,  Commerce,  Railways, 
Immigration,  etc.  In  1866  he  was  appointed  the  American 
delegate  to  the  International  Congress  which  met  at  Turin, 
Italy,  and  in  1868  delegate  to  the  Hague.  In  1868  he  was 
nominated  by  Mr.  Seymour's  friends,  and  in  1872  by  Mr. 
Greeley's  friends,  for  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  In  the  same- 
year  he  represented  the  United  States  at  the  International 
Congress  in  St.  Petersburg,  Russia. 

In  1876  he  was  appointed  Mining  Commissioner  to  the 
United  States  Monetary  Commission;  1878,  Clerk  to  the 
Committee  on  Naval  Expenditures,  House  of  Representa- 
tives; 1880,  he  published  his  "History  of  the  Precious 
Metals;"  1881,  "A  History  of  Money  in  Ancient  States;'* 
1885,  "Money  and  Civilization,  or  a  History  of  Money  in 
Modern  States;"  1885,  "The  Science  of  Money,"  (original 
edition);  1889,  "The  Science  of  Money,"  2d  ed. ;  1899, 
"A  History  of  Monetary  Crimes;"  1900,  "The  Science  of 
Money,"  3d  ed.  ;  1900,  "A  History  of  Money  in  America;'* 
1901,  "A  History  of  Monetary  Systems,"  3d  ed.  ;  and  "A 
History  of  the  Precious  Metals,"  2d  ed. ;  besides  several  his-- 
torical  works  and  archaeological  treatises  of  great  interest, 
all  of  which  have  been  reviewed  with  the  highest  commenda- 
tions by  English,  French  and  American  critics. 

For  the  past  twenty  years,  Mr.  Del  Mar  has  given  his:- 
whole  leisure  time  to  original  research  in  the  great  libraries 
and  coin  collections  of  Europe.  His  future  works,  both  of 
which  are  well  advanced  toward  completion,  will  be  "The 
Romance  of  the  Precious  Metals;"  and  "The  Politics  of 
Money." 

The  price  of  these  works,  in  fine  cloth,  will  be  $3.00  per 


^]  volume;  half-morocco,  $4-oo- 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  ENCYCLOPEDIA  CO. 

Publishers  of  Historical,  Classical,   Monetary, 

CHkUNOLOGICAL,    ArT,    AND    REFERENCE    WORKS. 


LIST  OF  PUBLICATIONS. 

The  Worship  of  Augustus  Caesar ;  derived  from  a 
study  of  coins,  nioiuiinents,  calendars,  Kras,  and  astron- 
omical, and  astrological  cycles,  the  whole  establishing  a 
New  Chronology  of  History  and  Religion,  by  Alex.  Del 
Mar,  formerly  Director  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Statistics; 
8vo,  pp.  400;  cloth,  $3. 

The  title  is  hardly  comprehensive  enough  for  this  magnificent  work,  which  is  nothing 
less  than  a  history  of  rtlinion  and  mytholo^  from  the  remotest  tunes  to  the  present  one. 
The  attitude  of  the  author  is  that  of  a  sincere  Christian,  who,  nevertheless,  examines  the 
foundations  of  rel.K<on  with  the  acumen  and  the  philosophy  of  a  Volney.  The  chapters 
on  the  Ten  Months  Year,  the  Cross  (Quarter  Days,  the  Worship  of  Jupiter  and  the  Roman 
Messiah  (.\uKUStus),  are  especially  irraphic.  The  alterations  of  tKe  Calendar,  by  Auj^us- 
tus  and  his  successors,  shed  an  entirely  new  light  upon  the  history  of  the  past.  — L<'M'js 
Chko.mcle. 

The  Middle  Ages  Revisited;  or  the  Roman  Govern- 
ment and  Religion  from  Augustus  to  the  Fall  of  Constan- 
tinople, by  Alex.  Del  Mar;  8vo,  pp.  400;  cloth,  $3. 

A  learned  and  thoughtful  volume  from  America  which  takes  a  minute  survey  of  the 
institutes  of  Roman  Kovemment  and  reliKion  with  the  view  of  ascertaintn>;  in  how  far 
these  have  affected  modern  civilizations  in  jrcncral,  and  that  of  Britain  in  particular.  That 
the  lawful  supremacy  ot  the  Sacred  Empire  is  the  f^uide  to  all  modern  history  the  writer 
supports  with  a  drreat  array  of  well-ordered  Icarnini;,  and  with  a  suKxestiveucss  that  can- 
not but  prove  stimulating  and  valuable  to  all  classes  of  historical  students.  The  book 
will  interest  and  instruct  every  serious  student  who  wishes  to  understand  the  unity  of  the 
cider  ages  with  the  new,  and  to  retrace  the  true  course  of  the  line  along  which  the  civil  and 
rcliKious   institutions  of    the    present   time   have   had   their   development. — Euinuuruk 

ScOTbMA.S. 

Mr.  Del  Mar,  who  is  one  of  the  most  profound  of  living  students  of  the  early  history  of 
I-ritain,  brings  to  his  researches,  concerning  the  middle  ages,  a  vast  store  of  knowiedgc. 
There  can  be  no  gainsaying  the  formidable  array  of  evidence  he  brings  to  bear  upon  his 
conclusions.    This  is,  undoubtedly,  a  book  of  striking  importance. — Livkki-ool  Mekcl'RV. 

Mr.  Del  Mar's  chapters  on  the  Feudal  System  constitute  the  finest  historical  reading  wc 
have  had  since  the  publication  of  Kuckle's  immortal  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Civil- 
ifaiion  in  England. — Glasgow  Hekalu. 

Ancient  Britain  ;  in  the  light  of  modern  archneological 
discoveries,  by  Ale.x.  Del  Mar;  8vo,  pp.  250;  cloth,  §2. 

Every  student  knows  that  the  medie'.-al  chroniclers  romanced  to  a  degree  that  render* 
their  statements  untrustworthy.  Here  we  have  the  historical  method  with  its  remorsciesa 
sifting.  — London  Ciikonicle. 

A  boundless  store  of  information,  neglected  by  ourselves  and  garnered  by  a  scholarly 
American.  A  remarkable  volume  which  will  well  repay  ^e' careful  perusal,  not  alone  of 
antiquarians,  but  of  everyone  who  is  interested  in  the  history  of  his  country. — New- 
Castlk  Cmko.niclk. 


Published  by  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia   Co. 
ANCIENT  BRITAIN— {Continued. ) 

Mr.  Del  Mar  turns  the  light  of  research  upon  the  dark  period  antecedent  to  the  Nor- 
man Conquest  with  such  effect  that  much  of  what  has  been  credited  without  demur  must 
now  be  revised  or  cast  aside.  Mr.  Del  Mar  has  drawn  his  inspiration  from  a  very  wide 
field,  and  in  every  instance  his  views  appear  to  be  well  founded.  The  chapters  on  the  Ro- 
man House  of  Commons,  the  Prerogative  of  Money,  and  those  dealing  with  the  Gothic 
power,  government  and  language,  and  the  pretended  Bretwealdas  of  the  Heptarchy,  are 
among  the  most  important  in  the  boo'K,  which  will  of  necessity  be  read  by  all  who  seek  the 
truth  in  history,  and  those  not  content  to  accept  the  stereotyped  conclusions  which  have 
so  long  held  sway. — M.^.nchester  Colrier. 

Revolutionises  the  early  history  of  the  country. — London  Morning  Post. 

He  reconstructs  Roman  Britain,  a  country  full  of  busy  cities,  seaports  and  industrial 
centres,  connected  by  fine  highways;  of  majestic  temples,  villas  and  other  architecture 
in  the  style  of  the  Mother  Country- ;  of  a  splendidly  organized  commerce  ;  in  short,  bear- 
ing the  same  relation  to  Rome  as  a  British  Colony  to-day  bears  to  Great  Britain.— Liver- 
pool Mercikv. 

The  History  of  Money  in  Ancient  States,  compris- 
ing China,  Japan,  India,  Ariana,  Bactria,  Caubul,  Afghan- 
istan, Eg}^pt,  Persia,  Assyria,  Babylon,  Palestine,  Aborig- 
inal Europe,  Greece,  Greek  Colonies,  Carthage,  Etruria, 
and  Rome,  from  the  Earliest  Periods  to  the  Dark  Ages, 
by  Alex.  Del  Mar;  8vo,  pp.  400;  cloth,  $3. 

In  this  volume  Mr.  Ale.x.  Del  Mar  sets  forth  the  view  that  "the  essence  of  money  is 
limitation,  and  that  coins  and  notes  are  alike  symbols  of  money." — London  Ti.mes. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  impugn  the  learning  and  industry  which  a  work  such  as  Mr. 
Del  Mar's  undoubtedly  displays.— Glasgow  Her.\ld. 

A  singularly  fascinating  work  for  all  readers,  .  .  .  which  never  fails  to  arouse  and 
sustain  our  interest.  .  .  .  A  brilliantly-written  work  upon  a  theme  of  vital  importance 
and  perennial  interest. — Manchester  Courier. 

Evinces  industrj',  patience,  and  research  of  no  ordinary  kind.  .  .  .  It  is  an  invalu- 
able service  towards  the  elucidation  of  a  problem  on  which  men's  minds  are  much  exer- 
cised at  the  present  day  to  bring  together  so  vast  a  body  of  evidence  on  the  world's  ex- 
perience on  this  subject.— Edinburgh  Scotsm.\n. 

The  value  of  the  work  is  such  that  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  will  come  to  be 
regarded  as  a  standard  authority  on  the  subject  of  which  it  treats.  .  .  .  Mr.  Del  JMar 
remains  severely  impartial  in  drawing  deductions  from  his  historical  researches.— Bo.mbav 
Gazette. 

Money  and  Civilization ;  or  a  History  of  the  Monetary 
Laws  and  Systems  of  various  States  since  the  Dark  Ages 
and  their  influence  upon  Civilization,  by  Alex.  Del  Mar; 
8vo,  pp.  475  ;  cloth,  $3.     {Edition  sold  out.) 

As  an  authority  on  monetary  systems  this  work  deser\'es  to  rank  high.  It  is,  in  fact,  an 
encyclopa;dia  on  the  subject,  and  no  one  who  is  making  a  study  of  this  important  matter 
can  afford  to  be  without  it.— Newport  Herald. 

Del  Mar's  magnificent  "  History  of  Money  and  Civilization  "  is  the  crowning  work  of  a 
lifetime.  It  enibraces  a  complete  and  impartial  collection  of  materials  relating  to  the 
monetary  e.xperience  of  the  various  States  of  the  world,  bringing  together  the  most  ancient 
and  the  most  modern  data.  Nobody  who  proposes  to  write  or  talk  upon  money  can  afford 
to  be  without  it.— Paris  Stentor,  Org.\ne  Co.m.mekcial,  Industri.\l,  Agricole,  Fi.n- 
ancier,  et  d'  Assurances. 

It  is  with  peculiar  pleasure  we  welcome  a  new  work  by  Mr.  A.  Del  Mar,  particularly 
when  it  deals  with  solid  historic  facts.— London  Banker's  Magazine. 


Plblished  i!y  tmk  Cami'.kidc.k  Kncyclopedia   Co. 

A  History  of  Monetary  Systems ;  or  a  Record  of  Ac- 
tual Experiments  in  Money  made  by  various  States  of  the 
Modern  World,  as  drawn  from  their  statutes,  customs, 
treaties,  mining  regulations,  jurisprudence,  history,  archae- 
ology, coins,  nummulary  systems,  and  other  sources  of 
information.  By  Alex.  Del  Mar;  cloth,  pp.  450;  $2. 
This    is  an   American   reprint  of   the  London  edition, 

which  is  now  out  of  print. 

Apart  from  any  views  which  an  author  may  propound,  as  derived  from  his  study  of  the 
facts  »n  which  these  arc  biiscd,  it  is  always  a  Kf^tcful  task  to  recognize  ability,  mdustry 
and  Icaminj;  in  the  collection  and  statement  of  the  facts  themselves.  In  Mr.  l>el.  Mar's 
present  work  these  qualities  are  conspicuously  present,  lor  mine  can  open  the  book  without 
seein>:  in  every  pa>je  evidences  of  the  most  laborious  inquiry  on  fields  of  research  and 
learnin<  wide  as  the  world  itself.  Ever)'  a^e  and  country,  from  K>;ypt,  centuries  prior  to 
Abraham's  sojourn,  the  I'rahminical  records  of  India,  the  parchments  ot  Greece,  J uda;a, 
Rome  and  .Arabia,  down  to  the  e.>:ploits  of  the  Argentine  Republic  in  our  own  day,  have 
been  explored  and  made  to  furnish  their  quota  to  the  jjrcat  museim  of  the  facts  of  monc- 
tar>'  histor>-.  .  .  .  All  bein^  treated  with  a  wealth  of  reference  and  allusion,  with  a 
breadth  of  knowledge  and  minuteness  of  detail  which  can  leave  little  to  Ix.'  desired.  .  .  . 
Treating  of  a  subject  nearly  as  old  as  the  hills,  it  is  as  intereslinjc  as  a  novel  and  immensely 
more  profitable.  .  .  .  Air.  Del  Mar's  book  will  continue  a  monument  of  his  U-arnin)? 
and  industry  wherever  monetary  science  is  studied;  deeply  interestinv:  and  valuable  to 
advocates  of  every  shade  of  opinion  or  school  of  finance.  He  fairly  follows  the  promise  of 
his  preface,  "that  he  has  not  laid  his  historical  works  undrt"  contribution  to  support  theories," 
but  honestly  "seeks,  by  analysiii.v;  the  various  experiments  that  have  been  made  with  this 
subtle  instrument  (money),  to  derive  Irom  them  whatever  li,<ht  they  may  be  able  to  throw 
upon  the  questions  that  vex  us  to-day." — North  Bhinsii  Econo.mist. 

Will  no  doubt  constitute,  for  many  years  to  come,  the  standard  work  on  the  world's  sys- 
tems of  interchaniie.  It  is  impissible  to  speak  in  too  hi^jh  terms  of  praise  of  the  erudi- 
tion displayed  by  the  author,  without  one  trace  of  anything  like  pedantry.  The  Ixiok  is  as 
interrstinK  as  a  good  novel,  and  vastly  more  cntertaininK.  A  most  valuable  and  inter- 
estinK  contribution  to  the  history  of  economics;  voluminous  in  its  contribution;  exhaus- 
tive in  detail.— London  Journal  of  The  Institute  ok  Bankeks. 

Mr.  Del  Mar's  reputation  as  a  statistician  and  as  a  writer  on  monetary  subjects  makes  this 
work  a  necessity  at  the  present  time  to  every  person  who  wishes  to  know  or  wishes  to  teach 
the  lessons  of  experience.  — New  Yokk  Woklu. 

Mr.  Del  Mar's  rank  as  a  student  and  writer  is  high.  He  writes  with  a  view  of  imparting 
information,  not  of  establishiUK  a  theory.  .  .  .  Full  of  e.xact  facts  eminently  pertinent 
tothe  discussions  now  in  proi^ress.— Chicago  Intek-Ockan. 

A  mass  of  information  which  can  scarcely  fail  to  be  ot  service  in  future  monetary  discus- 
sions.—London  Financial  Times. 

A  valuable  work  containing  much  careful  research  and  few  theories.— London  Book.man. 

Destined  to  throw  a  tlood  of  light  upon  the  questions  whic^  are  vexing  civilization  to- 
day.—Feokia  JOLKNAL. 

The  latest  solid  work  in  which  the  gold  and  silver  question  is  receiving  common-sense 
treatment.  — Bkooklyn  EAt;LE. 

A  remarkable  store  of  facts  regarding  ancient  and  modern  systems  of  money.  A  store- 
house of  curious  information,  a  work  of  remarkable  indu.stry,  which  only  a  man  with  a 
real  cnthosiosm  for  his  subject  would  have  undertaken.- North  British  Mail. 

\ '...    |i..i  \i  .,  ;^  ,...  .^,.„;,pj  as  pnc  of  the  most  able  and  well-equipped  students  of  the 

:■  :cn»ive  investiKations,  his  skill  in  sifliii){  and  graspiuK  the  en- 

ihered  in  a  lifetime  of  unwearied  research,  his  origiiutlity  and 

ii.vi..  j.^i.w^..- >.  .-;  ju^.v-.'w.;,  have  made  his  works  authority.- -Cleveland  Plainuealsk. 

In  the  present  volume,  Mr.  Del  Mar  has  been  as  unprejudiced  as  he  has  shown  himself 
to  be  in  all  of  Iiis  former  writings,  his  expros-sed  desire  being  simply  to  examine  and  profit 
by  the  experience  of  the  pa<it.  .  .  .  To  statesmen  and  financiers  this  work  will  com- 
mend itself  for  the  fulness  with  which  it  treats  the  various  systems  of  the  past  and  pres- 
ent.—Ntw  York  TiMiis. 


Published  by  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia   Co. 


A  HISTORY  OF  MONETARY  SYSTEMS— {Cont'd.) 

After  passing  through  the  crucible  of  Mr.  Del  Mar's  vigorous  mind,  this  work  has  em- 
erged without  bearing  any  trace  of  partisan  bias.  ...  A  deeply  interesting  book. — 
Bombay  Gazette. 

Mr.  Del  Mar  writes  without  prejudice,  without  bias  concerning  any  system  of  money. 
.  .  .  This  honest,  unprejudiced  spirit  of  inquiry  is  one  of  the  most  commendable  feat- 
ures of  a  valuable  and  erudite  work. — Cape  Argus. 

A  valuable  work. -^Hamburg  Borsenhalle. 

Those  bewildered  by  the  mass  of  literature  issued  on  all  hands  supporting  this  or  that 
currency  scheme  cannot  do  better  than  obtain  Mr.  Del  Mar's  work.  We  welcome  it  with 
peculiar  pleasure. — Banker's  Magazine. 

Mr.  Del  Mar  displays  a  commendable  grasp  of  his  subject,  and  enables  his  readers  to  see 
many  episodes  of  the  past  from  a  new  point  of  view. — London  Morning  Post. 

Heine  was  said  to  have  achieved  an  almost  impossible  literary  feat  when  he  was  witty 
in  German.  Mr.  Del  Mar  has  completely  succeeded  in  what  may  be,  without  doubt,  con- 
sidered yet  more  difficult  in  the  writing  v/ay  :  he  has  given  us  a  book  having  both  charm 
and  value  upon  the  subject  of  money.  Charm  there  indubitably  is,  as  indeed  there  always 
will  be,  when  a  deep  student  of  the  ancient  world  gives  us  the  result  of  his  studies  in  the 
form  of  "  unassuming  expression  of  knowledge  that  has  been  perfectly  assimilated,"  as 
Haraerton  once  said. — London  Senate. 

Able,  thorough,  and  interesting. — Madrid  Economist. 

The  most  complete  collection  of  historical  materials  on  the  subject  of  money. — Paris 
Stentor. 

Peculiarly  worthy  of  attention  from  students  of  money  problems. — London  Free 
Review. 

A  valuable  and  weighty  volume  on  the  history  of  currency  in  the  various  countries  of 
the  world.  —  London  Pall  Mall  •G.^zette. 

The  literature  of  monetary  science  and  history  is  undoubtedly  enriched  by  this  able  and 
exhaustive  work. — The  Scotsm.vn. 

Those  interested  in  the  subject  will  do  well  to  study  this  informing  volume. — LiVERroOL 
Mercury. 

We  quite  agree  with  the  author  that  money  is  something  more  than  the  mere  metal  or 
paper  of  which  it  is  composed. — Manchester  Guardian. 

We  follow  Mr.  Del  Mar  in  his  attack  on  the  extravagent  waste  of  public  money,  both  in 
this  country  and  the  United  States,  in  coining  gratis  gold  which  bullion  dealers  melt  down 
again  periodically  into  bullion. — London  Daily  Chronicle. 

As  an  authority  on  monetary  systems  this  work  deserves  to  rank  high.  It  is,  in  fact,  an 
encyclopaedia  on  the  subject,  and  no  one  who  is  making  a  study  of  this  important  matter 
can  afford  to  be  without  it. — New  York  Herald. 

History  of  Money  in  America ;  from  the  Spanish  Con- 
quest to  the  Foundation  of  the  American  Constitution,  by 
Alex.  Del  Mar;  8vo,  pp.  200;   cloth,   $1.50. 

La  admirable  obra  "  History  of  Money  in  America  "  dcbida  a  ese  portento  de  erudicion, 
quiza  el  mas  fecundo  y  original  escritor  econoraista  de  nuestros  tieinpos. — Revista  Econ- 

O.MICA. 

Mr.  Del  Mar,  the  author  of  the  ■'  History  of  Money  in  America,"  probably  deserves  to 
be  called  the  most  enthusiastic  and  indefatigable  ot  writers  on  the  theory  and  history  of 
money.  This  latest  work  from  his  pen  forms  no  exception  to  the  rule.  It  has  earned  a 
place  in  the  library  of  every  student. — Phil'a  Political  and  Social  Review. 

Del  Mar's  "  History  of  Money  in  America  "  should  be  as  familiar  as  household  words. 
How  can  we  discuss  a  subject  intelligently  unless  we  have  consulted  the  chief  authority? — 
Spirit  of  the  Times. 

The  passage  in  which  the  difference  between  "  barter"  and  "  purchase-and-sale  "  is 
shown,  and  its  bearing  upon  the  theories  of  money  which  dominate  the  present  mint  laws 
of  nations,  is  the  most  brilliant  chapter  in  the  whole  range  of  political  economy.  Every 
student  of  money  will  have  to  study  this  exposition. 


Published  uy  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia   Co. 

History  of  Money  in  Ihc  Ncthcrhinds;  by  Alex.  Del 
Mar;  pamphlet;  8vo,  pp.  32;  50  cents. 

*'  Replete  with  historical  information  of  the  highest  value." 

"  Thou({b  written  by  an  American,  it  has  become  authority  in  Holland." 

History  of  Money  in  China;  by  Alex.  Del  Mar.  Illus- 
trated with  fac-similes  of  the  most  rare  and  curious  coins. 
Pamphlet,  8vo,  pp.  32  ;  50  cents. 

'*  Indispensable  to  a  correct  knowledge  of  the  monetary  situation  in  the  Philippines  and 
to  our  future  relations  with  the  Orient." 

The  Science  of  Money;  or  The  Principles  deducible  from 
its  History,  ancient  and  modern,  by  Alex.  Del  Mar;  third 
edition;  8vo.  pp.  226;  cloth,  $1. 

"The  Science  of  Money,"  by  Alexander  Oirl  Mar,  M.  E.,  formerly  Director  of  the 
Bureau  ol  Statistics  of  the  United  States,  Mining  Commissioner  to  the  United  Stales 
Monetar>'  Commission  of  1876  and  author  of  several  books  conccrnioK  the  precious  metals, 
published  in  larv;c  type  and  handsome  dress  by  the  CambridKe  I'ress  of  New  York,  is  a 
con'ribiuion  to  this  large  and  intric.ite  subiect  that  demands  the  closest  study.  It  is 
written  in  a  style  of  powerful  simplicity  and  the  orisinality  of  many  of  the  observations 
it  contains  on  modern  society  as  .iffected  by  monetary  mechanisms  arc  of  prolound  intcn-st 
and  convincing  value.  Taken  altogether,  Sir.  Del  Nlar's  book  is  one  that  no  publici>t  and 
no  thinker  can  afford  to  be  without.  It  pays  a  large  premium  un  perusal. — New  Yukk 
Pkess. 

Of  great  value  because  of  its  wealth  of  financial  facts. — BojfroN  Daily  Advertiser. 

The  "  Science  of  Money  "  should  be  carefully  read  by  all  who  desire  to  form  clear  ideas 
upon  the  subject.  —  Fi.na.ncial  News. 

Terse  and  vigorous  and  comes  directly  to  his  meaning  without  circumlocution.  — Mining 
NVdki.d.  , 

A  work  which  has  had  for  ten  years  considerable  circulation  and  prestige  as  an  authority 
on  monetary  questions.- -The  Review  ok  Reviews. 

"  The  Science  of  Money  "  is  a  work  written  for  the  student  and  to  take  a  place  among 
the  classics  of  economic  literature. — The  Phil'a  A.merica.s. 

An  able  treatise  .     .     whose  conclusions  will  obtain  general  acqiiicscncc.     The  work 

will  be  read  with  interest  by  those  concerned  in  economical  and  monetary  transactions.— 
MuKMNi;  Post. 

The  chapter  on  the  "  Precession  of  Prices"  has  been  pronounced  by  a  leading  critical 
authority  in  England  as  "  the  finest  effort  of  analytic  faculty  in  the  whole  range  ot  ccunuinic 
literature."  — The  Joiksal,  Pe'jkia,  III. 

The  argument  is  brief,  but  singularly  clear  and  forcible;  the  work  is  oneof  marked  abi'ity 
and  strong  interest.  It  may  be  read  with  profit  by  every  business  man,  legislator  and  siu- 
dent— in  a  word,  by  e\crybody.  — Chicago  Ti.mes. 

This  is  a  new  edition  of  a  valuable  work  by  a  writer  who  has  deeply  and  consrientir-.is'y 
studied  the  subiect  on  which  he  writes.  The  book  contains  much  readable  and  vahiaUc 
matter.  — The  Honton  Co.mmosweai.th. 

Thoughtful  perjkins  who  have  already  made  some  study  of  monetary  questions  wil!  find 
this  book  worth  reading.  Considering  the  viist  amount  of  literature  now  being  turned  out 
on  the  subject  of  finance,  this  is  saying  a  good  deal.  — Biff  a  lo  Express. 

It  possesses  considerable  value  to  students  of  economics.  .  .  .  Its  author  has  wr::ten 
several  other  i>hle  works  treating  of  financial  matters— notably,  a  History  of  the  Prcc;ui:s 
Metals  and  of  .Monetary  Syvtcms  in  various  States.  .  .  .  The  work  is  ot  real  value  to 
students  of  economics. — 1  hk  Call,  San  Kkascisco,  Cal. 

Those  who  desire  to  master  the  inonetar>'  question  should  read  Del  M.ir's  "  Science  of 
Money  "  once,  twice,  thrice— aye,  even  four  times,  not  f>ecause  it  lacks  linlicity  or  compre- 
hensiveness, but  bccauic  it  is  a  mind-opener. —  Eli-hinstone  Y.  A.  Mmilanu  in  ih* 
London  Coinirv  GrvrLEMAN. 

The  merit  of  the  book  as  a  comprebcosivc  treatise  cannot  be  denied.— London  Journal 
or  THE  Statistical  Society. 


Published  by  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia   Co. 

History  of  Monetary  Crimes;  by  Alex.  Del  Mar;  illus- 
trated, 8vo,  pp.  no;  cloth,  75  cents. 

The  interest  of  a  work  m  which  a  woman  has  actually  figured  in  the  affairs  of  national 
finance  is  enhanced  by  the  clear  style  in  which  the  story  is  narrated  and  the  author's  evi- 
dent familiarity  with  the  subject. — Chicago  Record. 

England's  Halcyon  Age ;  by  Alex.  Del  Mar ;  8vo, 
pamphlet;  seventh  edition;   10  cents. 

A  history,  a  revelation  and  an  epic. — Times. 

The  Venus  di  Milo,  its  History  and  its  Art;  by  Alex.  Del 
Mar;illustrated,  8vo,  pp.  50.     Edition  de  luxe,  50  cents. 

The  "  Venus  di  Milo  "  was  found  in  a  buried  chapel, but  evidently  a  pagan  one,  because  a 
Bacchus  stood  on  either  side  of  the  Venus.  That  the  worship  of  the  Holy  Mother  (ma- 
trem  deorum)  long  antedates  the  Christian  asra  is  matter  of  common  knowledge  ;  but  it 
was  always  the  mother  of  some  pagan  diety,  as  les  Chrishna,  Bacchus,  or  Osiris.  The 
Virgo  Paritura  is  represented  on  ancient  monuments  and  coins,  both  Indian,  Chinese, 
Egyptian,  Grecian  and  Gaulish,  several  centuries  earlier  than  the  Christian  Era.  The 
Count  Marcellus,  who  saw  the  'Venus  of  Miio'  shortly  after  its  discovery  and  before  its 
removal  to  and  alteration  in  Paris,  declared  that  'it  can  be  demonstrated  that  the  statue 
represented  the  Panagia  or  Holy  Virgin  of  the  little  Greek  chapel  whose  ruins  I  saw  at  INIilo.' 
The  testimony  of  such  a  witness  cannot  be  ignored.  The  artist  of  the  restoration,  Mr. 
Frank  Paloma,  asserts  that  the  muscles  of  the  right  arm,  the  raising  of  the  left  side  of  the 
body,  and  the  posture  of  the  left  knee  all  combine  to  prove  that  the  so-called  Venus  must 
have  sustained  a  heavy  weight  upon  her  left  arm,  and  that  such  weight  could  have  been 
no  other  than  the  Holy  Child,  Bacchus,  of  the  pagan  mystery.  Moreover,  the  author  of 
'The  Venus  di  Milo  ;  Its  History  and  Its  Art,'  is  a  historian  and  archaeologist  of  no  mean 
reputation,  an  author  of  high  repute  and  a  gentleman  of  mature  judgment.  His  opinion 
that  Mr.  Frank  Paloma  has  most  successfully  solved  the  enigma  of  the  '  Venus  di  Milo  '  is 
certainly  not  without  weight." — New  York  Times. 

De  Die  Natale,  by  Censorinus;  translated  into  English  by 
William  Maude;  bound  up  with  the  "Life  of  Hadrian." 

"  De  Die  Natale"  the  Natal  Day,  contains  much  curious  information.  It  is  the  only 
work  of  classical  antiquity  which  includes  any  copious  collection  of  dates,  and  on  that  ac- 
count, as  well  as  others,  it  possesses  a  high  value  to  the  student  of  history. — Bookseller. 

Life  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  by  yElius  Spartianus; 
trans,  into  English  by  William  Maude;  bound  up  with  "  De 
Die  Natale  ";  pp.  108;  cloth,  $1.50. 

"  The  Life  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian,"  by  ^Elius  Spartianus,  A.  D.  300,  is  now  translated 
into  English  for  the  first  time. — Bookseller. 

The  Fluctuations  of  Gold,  by  Baron  Alex,  von  Hum- 
boldt; trans,  into  English  by  William  Maude;  bound  up 
with  the  following  work: 

The  Law  of  Payment,  by  Francois  Grimaudet,  Solicitor 
to  the  French  Mint  under  Henry  IH. ;  trans,  by  William 
Maude;  bound  up  with  "The  Fluctuations  of  Gold";  8vo, 
pp.  144;  cloth,  $1.50. 

To  all  who  are  engaged  in  the  history  of  monetary  laws  and  movements,  this  must  be  a 
valuable  and  helpful  book.  Here  are  nuggets  of  knowledge  which  may  be  turned  to  good 
account. — Brooklyn  Eagle. 


Published  hy  the  CAMnRiDOE  Encyclopedia   Co. 

A  New  Chronology;  deduced  from  a  study  of  the  most  re- 
cently discovered  Coins,  Inscriptions,  Monuments,  Cal- 
endars, Astronomical  Data,  and  other  sources  of  infor- 
mation; by  Alex.  Del  Mar.     8vo,  pp.  400;  $3. 

This  elaborate  and  profound  work,  wiihout  disturbinjf  the  conventional  dates  and  estab- 
lished chronology,  opeiis  up  an  additional  field  of  dates  of  vast  extent,  forming  an  indis- 
pensabie  aid  to  historical  study  and  research.  It  is  almost  as  essential  to  the  student  iis  u 
Inowledgcof  language  itself.  'Ihe  scope  is  all  embracing,  and  the  mode  of  treatment  .ind 
style  are  so  charming  that  the  reader's  interest  is  is  enchained  down  to  the  ver>'  last  page. 
Tne  title  prepares  one  for  a  dry  study  of  dates  :  the  body  of  the  work  is  as  interesting  as 
an  historical  narrative.  Our  office  copy  is  ihummed  to  blackne.ss  and  wc  would  as  S'>on 
go  without  it  as  Gibbon's  "  Rome  "  or  Dupin's  "  History  of  Religion." 

The  Spanish  Grammar,  by  Don  Manuel  Del  Mar.author 
of  "A  History  of  Mexico,"  collaborator  with  Sir  Arthur 
Helps  in  his  '*  History  of  the  Spanish  Conquest  in  Amer- 
ica," etc.     8vo,  pp.  390;  with  key,  $2. 

This  is  thestandard  grammar  of  the  Spanish  language  for  English  learners  which  has  been 
used  in  the  colleges  and  schools  of  England  durmg  the  past  si.vty  years,  and  has  passed 
through  numerous  editions.  For  brevity,  simplicity,  clearness,  and  a  thorough  and  prac- 
tical appreciation  of  the  needs  and  wants  of  those  who  desire  to  readily  and  quickly  master 
the  Spanish  language,  it  is  without  a  rival.  Of  prime  importance  to  students  and  others 
wishing  to  acquire  the  sonorous  tongue  of  our  new  possessions  in  the  Antilles  and  I'hilippines 

English  Pharisees  and  Frcneh  Crocodiles,  by  Max 

O'Kell;  Svo,  pp.  240;  cloth,  §1. 

This  celebrated  book  was  first  published  by  the  Cassell  Pub.  Co.,  in  cloth,  for  $1.50.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  popular  works  on  America  ever  written  by  a  foreigner.  .Mr.  ()"Rell  is  a 
wit,  a  philosopher  and  a  keen  critic  of  customs  and  national  types  of  character.  There  is 
not  a  dull  page  in  his  book.  It  is  that  kind  of  a  volume  that  a  person  can  read  more  than 
once  and  be  highly  entertained  with  subsequent  readings.  Like  a  good  play,  it  will  bear 
close  study. — West  B.\des  Joirnal. 

Wall  Street,  or  the  Making  of  a  President.  A  Tragedy 
in  Four  Acts.  By  D.  F.  Callahan,  M.D.  Paper,  Svo,  pp. 
100;   50  cents. 

"  Wall  Street,"  or  the  Making  of  a  President,  a  tragedy  in  four  acts,  by  Dr.  D.  T.  Calla- 
han, is  hands<^>mely  published  by  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia  Company.  It  reads  like  a 
good,  acting  play,  and  will  be  staged  in  San  Francisco.  'I  he  same  Company  publish  a  re- 
vised edition  of  "  The  Science  of  Monur,"  by  Alexander  Del  .Mar,  who  is  a  world-wide  au- 
thority upon  finance. — Spirit  of  the  Times. 

The  Cambridge  Encyclopedia  of  Esoteric  subjects,  in- 
cluding Religion,  Chronology,  History,  Literature,  Biog- 
raphy, Money,  Finance,  Law,  Medicine,  Taxation,  Numis- 
matics, Philosophy,  and  General  Information.  Edited  by 
Alex.  Del  Mar.  Vol.  I,  May,  1899,  to  January,  1901  ; 
eighteen  months;  with  complete  Alphabetical  Index,  cloth, 
Svo,  pp.  900;  $4.50;  half  morocco,  $5.00.  Vol.  II,  from 
January,  1901,  to  January,  1902;  twelve  months;  cloth, 
$2.50;  half  morocco,  $3. 00. 


Published  by  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia    Co. 

Etching;  its  technical  process  and  its  history,  by  S.    R. 
Koehler;  new  edition,  illustrated  by  30  steel  plates  and  95 
woodcuts,  folio,  pp.  260.    Cloth  and  gold;  only  250  copies 
printed,  ^30.     Japanese  paper,  and  morocco,  $50. 

A  new  edition  of  Koehler's  magnificent  "  History  of  Etching,"  illustrated  by  thirty  steel 
and  copper  plates  from  old  and  modern  etchers,  and  ninety-five  woodcuts.  The  text  fills 
260  pages,  folio.  This  work,  originally  projected  at  $200  per  copy,  will  be  furnished  to  sub- 
scribers at  §30. — Bookseller. 

The  lovers  ot  steel  engravings  and  etchings  will  rejoice  in  this  sumptuous  work.  The 
plates,  beginning  with  Durer  and  Hopfer,  end  only  with  Whistler  and  Zorn.  Those  printed 
©n  Japanese  paper  will  in  ten  years  be  worth  a  small  fortune. — Revue  des  Be.-vux  Arts. 

The  Venus  di  Milo ;  8vo,  illustrated.    Price,  50c. 

"  The  Venus  di  Milo — Its  History  and  Its  Art  " — is  the  title  of  a  very  neat  and  artistic 
brochure  by  Alexander  Del  Mar,  from  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia  Company,  New  York. 
This  book  is  embellished  by  a  design  of  the  restored  statue  as  accomplished  by  Frank 
Paloma,  a  rising  young  American  artist  now  residing  in  Paris.  The  idea  embodied  in 
the  design  is  a  very  noble  one  and  suited  in  every  particular  to  the  beautiful  and  majestic 
features  and  pose  of  this  world-famed  statue.  The  historical  sketch  by  iSIr.  Del  Maris 
clear ard  concise,  giving  the  facts  of  the  discovery  of  the  statue,  its  sale  to  the  French 
government,  its  long  seclusion  from  the  world  in  the  workshop  of  the  Royal  Museum,  and 
the  alterations  which  are  believed  to  have  taken  place  there.  The  different  theories  ad- 
vanced by  scholars,  sculptors  and  antiquarians  as  to  the  origin,  the  ideal  embodied,  the 
period  which  produced  the  statue,  are  all  interestingly  told  and  make  a  valuable  addition 
to  art  history. 

Before  reading  this  explanation,  advanced  so  convincingly  by  Mr.  Del  Mar,  the  theory 
of  Victor  Rydberg  had  seemed  to  us  the  most  appropriate  and  satisfactory  one  for  this 
most  noble  and  beautiful  of  all  that  remains  of  ancient  Greek  art  (not  excepting  the  Apollo 
Belvedere  of  the  Vatican,  or  the  Head  ot  Juno  in  the  British  Museum).  He  calls  her  the 
"Heavenly  Aphrodite,  the  Guardian  Goddessof  the  Island  of  Melos." 

That  (as  the  present  work  proves)  this  ever-beautiful  image  was  a  Madonna  of  the 
Greeks,  embodying  the  holy  sentiment  of  maternal  love,  which  among  all  people  and  in 
all  ages  has  been  reverenced  and  held  sacred,  is  a  much  more  beautiful  hypothesis.  We 
■would  not  ask  a  better  or  more  reasonable  one  for  our  favourite  statue,  and  we  gladly 
welcome  the  lovely  Greek  to  a  place  ot  honor  among  the  fair  company  of  Madonnas. — 
Los  Angeles  (Cal.)  Club  Wo.man. 

History  of  Roman  Britain,  with  a  full  account  of  its 
legal,  political  and  industrial  progress;  including  in  the 
latter  the  buildings,  highways,  bridges,  fortresses,  light- 
houses, ships,  river  embankments  aud  drainage  works  con- 
structed by  the  Romans  in  Britain;  by  Alex.  Del  Mar; 
8vo,  pp.  248;  cloth,  $2. 

The  Romans  were  500  years  in  Britain  and  left  behind  them  the  most  numerous  and  en- 
during marks  of  their  grand  civilization  ;  yet,  beyond  a  few  scant  lines  our  standard  his- 
tories contain  no  account  of  these  achievements.  Mr.  Del  Mar,  who  studied  the  subject  in 
Britam  itself,  has  here  brought  together  the  whole  body  of  our  archaeological  researches, 
and  lit  it  up  with  the  flame  of  a  golden  pen. — Temps. 

A  treatise  on  the  Roman  government  and  religion  and  their  relations  to  Britain,  whose 
elaborate  character  marks  its  anther  as  a  scholar  of  the  highest  order  of  ability.  The  style 
is  eminently  earnest  and  fascinating,  and  the  reader  finds  the  book  most  enjoyable.  Mr. 
Del  Mar  records  his  conviction  that  "through  its  singular  capacity  to  continually  renew 
itself,  Christianity  is  destined  to  remain  the  paramount  religion  of  the  civilized  world." — 
Lo.NDON  Spectator. 

In  this  splendid  volume,  by  an  American  author,  is  brought  together  a  body  of  learning 
whose  only  analogue  in  our  own  literature  are  those  brilliant  researches  upon  which  Her- 
bert Spencer  has  buik  up  the  fabric  of  his  synthetic  philosophy. — Br.-\dford  Observer. 

A  very  striking  book,  whose  array  of  evidences  is  little  less  than  formidable.  It  teaches 
us  that,  in  the  light  ot -what  has  been  discovered  since.  Ue- wrote,  we  can  no  longer  rely 
with  unvarying  confidence  on  Prof.  Freeman. — Leeds  Yorkshire  Post. 


^ZTL 


Published  »y  thf.  Cambridge  Encyclopedia   Co. 

Sketches  by  Max  (J'Kell:  I,  Jacques  Bonhomme;  II,  The 
Auverjiiiats;  III,  John  Bull  on  the  Continent;  IV,  From 
my  Letter  Box;  8vo,  pp.  i6S;  paper,  50  cents. 

A  Mother's  Song^,  in  Five  Cantos,  by  Mary  D.  Brine;  il- 
lustrated by  Miss  C.  A.  Northani;  410,  pp.  60;  cloth  and 
gold.     EJitiois  i/t-  /itxt\  $1. 

Sweet  Twilight  Dretims ;  being  Poems  and  Pictures  of 
Life  and  Nature,  selected  from  English  and  American 
poets,  and  profusely  illustrated  by  twenty  eminent  artists; 
4to,  pp.  80;  cloth  and  gold,  $1. 

Sunli}>:ht  and    Shade  ;  a  Holiday  gift  book  of    Poems, 

profusely  illustrated  by  twenty-five  eminent  artists;   4to, 
pp.   192;   $1. 

History  of  Yachting;  1850  to  1901,  by  Capt.  Coffin  and 
others;  with  125  si)lendid  illustrations,  by  Fred.  Cozzens 
and  other  artists;  4to,  pp.  225.    Edition  de  luxe ;  cloth,  $10. 

This  maRnificent  volume,  wherein  is  narrated  and  portrayed  every  thing,  event  and  ac- 
cessarj'  of  yachting  belon>iin>c  to  the  past  hall  century,  is  a  mar%-cl  of  typographical  ex- 
cellence;  the  illustrations  bein.:  especially  beautitul.  Wc  predict  lor  it  a  large  sale  ainun^ 
yachtsmen  and  connuiseurs  of  ships. 

Action  or  Movement  in  Art,  as  illustrated  from  the 
designs  of  the  most  eminent  artists,  ancient  and  modern, 
by  W.  H.  Beard,  with  225  original  drawings  by  the  author, 
large  i2mo,  pp.  360;  $1. 

Be.ird's  ".Action  in  .\rt,"  a  work  indispens-ible  to  the  student,  is  now  used  in  all  the  ad- 
vanced scho<ils  of  drawinj;  both  in  Env;land  and  America.  To  p<>r[ray  action  or  movement 
»s  the  kinetic  secret  of  the  world's  sreat  artists.  Lifeless  art  is  dead  art  ;  lit  only  to  be 
portrayed  on  mummy  cases. — t>usEKVEK. 

The  Rape  of  the  Earth  ;  or  a  history  of  the  ravages  and 
alterations  of  the  earth's  surface  brought  about  by  gold- 
mining;  by  Emile  Walter;  cloth,  8vo;  $2.     In  press. 

This  work  embraces  historical  and  scientific  accounts  of  the  followinir  mininR  rivers  and 
their  affluents  and  valleys  :  Ganges  -  Indus  ;  Chrisma  ;  Kuphrales  ;  Nile  ;  Zambesi  ;  Dan- 
ube ;  I'o ;  Tiber  ;  Rhone  ;  Garonne  ;  Thames;  Rhine;  La  Plata;  and  Sacramento.^[^.E.Cu. 

Economic  Philosophy,  by  Van  Buren  Deni.low,  LL.  D., 
fornurly  of  the  New  York   Tribune  ;  8vo,  pp.  800;  $2. 

V  Life  of  Hon.  Alex.  Del  Mar,  by  J.  K.  II.  ^\'illco.K;  Svo, 
pamphlet;  third  edition;   25  cents. 

Why  Should  the  Chinese  Go?  A  pertinent  inquiry 
from  a  Mandarin  high  in  authority;  by  Kwang  Chang 
Ling.      Paper,  Svo;   25  cents. 


Published  by  the  Cambridge  Encyclopedia  Co. 

A  History  of  the  Precious  Metals;  from  the  Earliest 
times  to  the  Present;  by  Alex.  Del  Mar.  Second  edition, 
complete  in  one  volume;  pp.  500,  8vo.  Cloth  and  gold, $3. 
This  is  not  a  recension  of  the  First  edition  (London,  1880), 
but  an  entirely  new  work  constructed  on  an  improved  plan 
by  the  same  author.  The  following  are  from  the  Press 
Notices  of  the  First  edition. 

Abounds  with  vivid  description  and  practical  knowledge. — London  Athenaeum. 

Replete  with  information  ;  evinces  much  care  and  study. — London  Academy. 

Shows  the  most  conspicuous  advance  beyond  his  predecessors. — London  Sat.  Review. 

A  work  of  great  weight  and  elegance  of  style. — London  Economist. 

No  such  able  and  exhaustive  work  since  that  of  William  Jacob. — London  Statist. 

Years  ago  Mr.  Del  Mar  gave  to  the  public  "A  History  of  the  Precious  Metals"  which 
has  since  become  a  standard  work  on  the  subject.  In  that  work  was  traced  the  adventures 
of  the  Phoenicians,  Romans,  Spaniards,  Californians  and  Australians — those  Argonauts 
who  variously,  from  the  dawn  of  history  to  the  present  time,  have  led  the  search  for  the 
precious  metals.  Beside  discover^-,  the  author  showed  that  these  metals  had  been  largely 
obtained  through  conquest  and  slavery.  The  Persian,  Greek,  Roman,  Egyptian,  Spanish 
and  British  conquests  of  mining  countries,  and  the  Roman  and  Spanish  systems  ot  mine 
slavery,  were  next  delineated,  and  finally  the  conditions  of  free  mining  were  examined. 
Upon  a  general  review  of  the  entire  subject,  the  author  found  ample  reason  to  agree  with 
the  celebrated  dictum  of  Montesquieu,  that,  upon  the  whole,  gold  and  silver,  when  ob- 
tained by  free  mining  and  paid  labour,  had  cost  to  the  world  a  far  greater  price  than  they 
represented  in  the  exchanges.  Montesquieu  arrived  at  this  conclusion  by  instinct  ;  Mr.  Del 
Mar  reached  it  through  historical  research. — Sacramento  Record-Unio.v. 

Mr.  D.  has  thoroughly  surmounted  every  obstacle,  and  furnished  a  volume  replete  with 
information.     Every  line  will  be  read. — London  Mining  Journal. 

A  complete  text-book  on  the  subject. — London  Money. 

Based  on  independent  research. — London  Daily  News. 

Of  the  highest  scientific  value,  yet  readable  as  a  novel. — New  York  Economist. 

The  peculiar  advantages  which  Mr.  Del  Mar  has  enjoyed  have  alone  enabled  a  work  of 
such  magnitude  and  historical  value  to  be  completed  in  a  single  lifetime.  He  has  travelled 
into  every  country  whose  monetary  system  he  has  delineated  ;  he  has  examined  the  official 
records  consulted  the  local  histories  and  numismatic  monuments,  sur%'eyed  the  gold  and 
silver  mines  and  traced  the  mining  rivers,  in  each  of  them  separately  ;  and  by  the  light  of 
these  researches  he  has  been  enabled  to  construe  many  obscure  passages  in  the  texts  of  Caesar, 
Pliny,  Plutarch,  and  other  ancient  writers.  Mr.  Del  Mar's  works  are  valuable  contribu- 
tio»s  to  the  rather  small  amount  of  literature  that  has  been  published  on  such  important 
subjects,  and  they  are  the  more  useful  because  they  are  devoted  to  the  setting  forth  of  facts, 
and  not  to  the  upholding  of  any  particular  theories. — London  Financial  News. 

Next  to  its  versatility  and  vast  scope,  the  absolute  impartiality  of  the  work  is  perhaps  its 
most  striking  feature.  It  advocates  no  theories,  it  indulges  in  no  deductive  arguments,  it 
is  strictly  historical,  and  it  is  history  of  the  highest  order,  fit  to  rank  with  the  works  of 
Gibbon,  Robertson,  Alison,  Macaulay,  Niebuhr,  and  Mommsen. — Bullionist. 


All  of  the  above  works  luill  be  furnished  bound  in 

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